Natus vincere
by Alilie
Summary: A dark harry potter fic with a dangerous!dark!harry yet not evil!harry. Dumbledore bashing, op harry, wbwl. Highly abusive!dursleys. It's not action oriented but more focused on Harry's transformation as a person.
1. Chapter 1

_**Natus Vincere**_

 **AN:- So, this'll be quite a dark fic with extremely abusive! Dursleys, Harry is NOT the BWL, Neville is so WBWL! Lots of OOC characters and a reminder that this is a fanfic so there'll be stuff that is obviously quite made up.**

' _Thoughts_ **'**

"speech"

{Parseltongue}

 **Chapter 1**

 _09: 23 pm 31st October 1980, Godric's Hollow, England._

The stormy winds were whipping past him as he, the Dark lord Voldemort, formerly known as Tom Marvolo Riddle strode towards the _Potter Cottage_ where resided one of the two candidates referred in the prophecy that foretold his downfall.

'Impossible' he thought, _'The very idea that HE, Lord Voldemort could be defeated by mere babes, he who had gone through great lengths to achieve not only power but also Immortality, Death couldn't catch him, he was immune to it, HE IS LORD VOLDEMORT'_.

He was broken out of his thoughts as he reached his destination, just outside the cottage near the Wards boundary, ' _so weak_ ' he thought, ' _so confident in their friend that they put up such flimsy protection, ah, wormtail, a fitting name for a coward, he told us all he needed to._ ' With a quick gesture of his wand he used the Killing Curse to rip through the wards, and strode forward to enter the house.

 _Inside the Potter Cottage._

The atmosphere in the potter cottage was, as usual for nowadays, a contradictory mixture of tense and lightness, the tenseness brewed from the ongoing war was affected the light atmosphere produced by the infectious and ignorant innocence crawling from the child in it. What was not usual was the number of people present in the cottage, namely the addition of 3 _Longbottoms_ , Alice, Frank, and Neville respectively. Along with the Cottage's namesake and permanent residents the _Potters_ James, Lily, and Hadrian a.k.a Harry, a.k.a Prongslet.

All of them were present in the nursery where the children were playing with blocks and the adults were keeping a watch on them and discussing simultaneously.

"aww, they're getting along so well" cooed Lily potter, watching her son play with Neville.

"hmm, They are _god brothers_ technically, of course they get along" commented Alice, watching her son, her light of her life, basking in the lightness produced by both the kids which was draining away some of her tension.

Both the males were watching this scene with an understanding in their eyes, the ongoing violence had been taking a toll on their psyche too, and the scene of not only their children innocently playing with each other but their wives draining tension served to soothe them too, and as their old twinkle eyed friend was used to saying love was indeed a powerful force.

"it's a good thing both of you could make it over here today so that we could discuss about _**it**_ " began Lily.

It immediately set the atmosphere on edge, the addition of the omnious Prophecy had became a source of much distress for both of the families, it had been raising their paranoia and fear for their families especially the little ones.

"Yes" continued Alice "do you really believe _**it**_ will work?, I mean I'm not doubting you but still…"

"Ali I understand what you're saying and to be honest, I believe there's only about 85 – 90% chance but I'd say its better than nothing" replied Lily.

"of course, it never hurts to be extra prepared rather than unprepared." agreed Frank.

"it's just that this whole situation has me on edge, I just wish for it to get over" commented Alice.

' _so do I_ ' thought the other three occupants of the room.

"well, I'd say that….." began James but he was interrupted by booming sound of the wards falling that resounded through the cottage.

All the four adults now looked highly alarmed and the resounding boom had also caused the toddlers to be distressed and promptly they started crying.

"Lily stay with the kids, Frank, Alice lets go & check the situation" barked James as he headed towards the front door with the longbottom couple following him.

All Lily could hope was that the three aurors would fare well.

Seeing Voldemort enter the house james bellowed "Lily takes the kids and go!"

All three of the aurors went for their wands, their professional grade holsters sliding their wands in their palms faster than blinking, yet before the three could comprehend what was happening a sickly green light flashed in front of them and james fell to the floor like a puppet cut from his strings. Without pausing to take this in, without letting the shock overwhelm them, the Longbottom duo engaged Voldemort in a duel.

While all this was happening Lily potter was in the nursery, at first she tried to take the kids and apparate out of house which would soon become a battlefield, but nothing happened with a sinking feeling she realized that they must have put up anti-apparation wards, despite her apprehension she tried to use the emergency portkeys they had and much to her dismay her apprehensions turned out to be true and the port keys were rendered useless. ' _Now my only option is to rely on_ _ **it**_ _, all I can hope for is that the kids remain safe_ '.

On the duel front things had been rough for the remaining 2 aurors, despite the fact that they were some of the fastest and strongest fighters of their generation they were having a hard time fighting the dark lord who was winning despite being outnumbered. The first to fall was Alice, brave Alice, who fell to a dark cutting curse to her throat resulting in her choking on her own, as her body slid to the ground. Watching his wife fall to the ground, the scene proved too much for Frank and he hesitated, just for a single second, yet he hesitated, his intentions to rain pain and death upon the murderer of his wife burning like an inferno were doused with a bone exploding hex landing true on his sternum and ending the duel in the darklord's favor.

As the sounds of the duelling stopped Lily realized what was going to happen soon and gathered every last drop of her willpower and stood in front of the crib where the toddlers were still wailing from their distress.

 _'ah, how the universe has aligned to favor me, me the lord voldemort, I had expected to find only one child of prophecy today yet I get the opportunity to deal with them both, ah how the fates have favored me, and now once I deal with them I will be truly rendered immortal with no one able to kill me, but first my promise to my faithful servant Severus'_ thought voldemort as he entered the nursery and saw lily potter shielding the 2 children.

"Stand aside and live, Lily Potter" commanded Voldemort.

"No, please take me and spare the children." Pleaded Lily, desperation clear in her voice.

"stand aside, you foolish girl!" commanded Voldemort yet again.

"NO!" replied Lily resolutely.

And then in a flash of green just like her husband Lily Potter departed to the next great adventure. And then while the dark lord was proceeding to deal with the children he gave the body of now departed Lily Potter a final look, an act which caused him to miss the faint wisp light that radiated from the youngest Potter.

And then his eyes fell on the toddlers, wherein he decided to first deal with the Potter spawn whom he was here to deal with originally and then he could deal with the Longbottom spawn, and with a great bellow of " _Avada Kedavra!_ " the sickly green flash which took down the Potter parents raced towards the last Potter but as it connected with him something unexpected happened, the spell rebounded from him and faster than the dark lord could comprehend it struck him true, the magical backlash destroying his body as if it were made of paper, and his spirit which was forcefully ejected from its former vessel howled in agony and fled the scene of carnage but it failed to notice the small bit of him that seperated from the main body and attached itself to his target like the leech it was.

Fifteen minutes later Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, stumbled onto a scene which would be a place where he would commit the biggest mistake of his life, finding 4 of his young friends and students dead and their children in a crib both crying and injured, the Potter child's forehead looked as if someone had cracked it open to forcefully drive something in it or to be more precise like a lightning bolt, and then when he looked at the longbottom child there was a a bleeding injury on his forehead too, one that looked like a V and upon seeing that all Albus could think about were the words of prophecy _**"and he shall be marked as his equal"**_ and suddenly there weren't 2 children but the **chosen one** and the _other child_ , the **champion of light** and the _other child,_ and then came the pronouncement of Neville Longbottom, The-Boy-Who-Lived.

And in the late night of 1st of November while Neville Longbottom was being tended to by his grieving grandmother his god brother was left on the doorsteps of a muggle household to be forgotten for the next ten years.


	2. Chapter 2 Inchoate

**Chapter 2**

 _ **Inchoate**_

08:12 pm 1st September 1991, Great Hall, Hogwarts.

He stood there with his black wild hair that went slightly past his shoulders and flew in every direction, not unlike a raven's nest, amongst his peers in the great hall of Hogwarts, his face gave away no emotion, as if carved in stone, his jade eyes looking ahead of him as if in defiance to reality and not even wasting a moment to blink, but at the same time not giving away anything, like a void which kept everything it had in itself and nothing was destined to escape it, had anyone really paid him any attention they would have noticed that his facial expressions or the lack thereof was a constant from the time he had come onto the platform 9 ¾, he watched as others in his years were sorted, the Deputy Headmistress, one Professor Minerva Mcgonagall calling out the names of the students, starting from, Abbot Hannah, who went to be a Hufflepuff, to Longbottom Neville, the-boy-who-lived, who of course went to Gryffindor, the cheer that followed had to be brought to a halt by Dumbledore himself.

And then it continued once again, till Perks Sally-Anne, who went into Hufflepuff, then Professor Mcgonagall called out, "Potter Harry", He mechanically strode to sit down on the 3 legged chair that had been provided to them, and then the sorting hat was placed upon his head, and its verdict was awaited, some of the staff which had anticipated a quick sorting, not unlike the Malfoy heir's, were in for a surprise as the minutes began to tick in, soon 3 minutes had passed away, the boy was well on his way to become a _Hatstall_ , a prospect which excited some of the staff, especially Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Filius Flitwick, the diminutive Charms professor of who had both been _hatstalls_ , and knew that usually _hatstall_ students were interesting to teach because they had an interesting perspective of things, and when the timer for the potter boy struck down to 5 minutes they were giddy at the prospect of promise they expected from this boy, after all his parents were some of their best students, Lily a Charms Prodigy and would have very well became a Charms Mistress, had she not stopped when she had gotten pregnant with her son, and had she been alive, James had gone and became an Auror instead of pursuing the promise he showed in Transfiguration because he wanted to help with the war and protect his small family of two, he too had his life cut short, now their son, a _hatstall_ , definitely held prospect of prodigious promise, one greasy haired Potions Professor on the other hand was nor amused nor excited, he was fuming believing the son of his former nemesis and the woman he loved, to be vying for attention.

Soon the clock started to tick up to 10 minutes, the earlier feeling of the teacher's were replaced by worry for it was taking too long, of course, with the exception of the potions professor, it was not an un-precedent event, for the longest record of a _hatstall_ was held by one, Mary Poppins in 1818, a whole 12 minutes and 50 seconds, but the reasoning behind that was simple the animated discussion she had with the hat was famous, also a story that was told to the young Magic born children as a bed time story, but here not a peep had been heard by either one of them, the teachers and students were beginning to become restless with curiosity so as to what was happening, Professor Mcgonagall watched the proceedings with bewilderment as there were no set guidelines for these kind of events, and usually when they occurred, which was rare, they were simply waited out, by the time it had ticked up to 12 minutes, everyone waited with baited breath to see whether they'd see a new record being formed, and their expectations paid put, when at the new record time of 13 minutes and 13 seconds the hat bellowed, _**Gryffindor**_!

 **=O=O=O=O=O=**

Well, the hat, had not bellowed so much as it had announced in the same manner it did for others but the silence that had seized the great hall had made his voice boom like a cannon. Suddenly everyone started claping not unlike when Longbottom got sorted, in fact this time it was even louder as even those who hadn't applauded back then simply because they were indifferent to the boy who lived or were against him clapped, for different reasons, sure, but clapped none the less, the ones who were indifferent earlier had jumped the band wagon simply because it was a truly exciting event, while those who were against the boy who lived believed themselves to be traditionalists, the majority of them didn't like the fact that he got sorted into Gryffindor but breaking such a legendary record was something that had to be held in high esteem.

While all this was happening Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, The Chief Warlock Of Wizengamot, The Supreme Mugwump of the International Confideration of Wizards, and bearer of many other titles, had been going through many trains of thoughts, at first when he had seen the boy just after his Deputy and Friend of many years, not to mention former student, called out his name for a second he had seen his two Dearly Departed, Students, and Friends, while the young boy was very much splitting image of his father with the exception of his long hair, lack of glasses, and not to mention jade eyes that resembled his mother, he suddenly felt really guilty for not having visited him for the past 10 years, bust he squashed that guilt under the belief that he probably grew up happily under the tender loving care of his aunt, who he believed was probably willing to turn a blind eye to his magical heritage, something which wouldn't be helped by his involvement in the boy's life, after all family was family no matter what, right? He knew he hadn't been the best of the brothers to Ariana and still wasn't what he'd call a good one to Aberforth but he definitely liked to believe that others wouldn't make the same mistakes as him.

When the boy turned out to be a hatstall he too was excited, he could simply imagine the shenanigans the boy would get into given who his parents were, and were he to team up with the Weasley twins, it would be quite a spectacle to watch, of course, Minerva would disagree, and most probably spend what little time she had free to herself by giving him detentions, when the timer reached to 10 minutes he too got worried for the boy, worried that maybe he was too scared for the hat to properly sort him in any house, and could only hope that the had had been trying to help the boy calm down, and slowly when the time came where he was slowly but steadily beginning to contend for the new title for the longest hatstall he leaned forward to look at the boy more intently as if trying to figure out a particularly difficult arithmatical problem, when at 13 minutes and 13 seconds he actually broke the record, albus was flabbergasted, not because of the record being broken, he had done that the moments he had crossed the 12:50 mark, but what shocked him was the timing of it 13 Minutes and 13 Seconds, 13 being the arithamatic number representing death, he wondered if this was a mere coincidence of was something greater at work here?

The boy in question was after all the other candidate for the prophecy, he recalled another 11 year old orphan who had been a hat stall though certainly not for as long as this one, but there were parallels, not to mention the string of words and fate that put these two on similar tangents, one the worst Dark lord seen in centuries, the other a contemporary to the one who vanquished the said dark lord.

He quashed all these thoughts with a vehemence and concentrated back on the eleven year old, he didn't want to be reading too much between the lines, after all one of them never knew his family never knew their love, and simply wasn't capable of loving anything or anyone aside of himself. Oh that didn't meant he wouldn't keep an eye open, after all he had lost the love of his life to the greed of power, and nearly lost his own way, except he found himself back at the right path, though certainly at a terrible price, once again shaking off these ghosts of his past he decided that he would simply speaking give the young boy a chance, and should he slip off the path he'd do everything in his power to help him find his way back, one that didn't had him paying the same toll as himself.

 **=O=O=O=O=O=**

Harry Potter's face was still as expressionless as it was at the beginning as he moved forth to sit amongst his new housemates in midst of being congratulated and applauded, nor his face nor his eyes betrayed any emotion of thoughts that were whirling away in his mind, he simply sat there with his peers, to others it seemed like he was in shock, something they believed they could understand after all he did broke a prestigious record not something someone does everyday. One Hermione Granger was trying hard not to be envious of Harry Potter the new enigma, though a part of this effort came from her ruthless curiosity which wanted to have her interrogate him on the details of his sorting about things like, what was he talking about with the hat for so long? Had he even known that he was being applauded for breaking such a prestigious record? Did this mean that he wanted to learn magic as much as she did? But it for all for naught as not only was he sitting on the other end of the house table but he also didn't look fit to be answering any of her questions for tonight. Well there was always tomorrow.

Neville Longbottom was looking at his fellow Gryffindor with undisguised awe, he had been taught and made aware about these kind of situations by his grandmother ever since he could remember, he recalled that people holding such great records were held in high esteem because it had been tried and tested time and again that these people were great at magic, and he had heard stories about his godmother and her husband who had fought along his parents in the war, he sincerely wanted to get along with harry and possibly make friends with him.

Meanwhile Ronald Weasely was busy trying to stuff asmuch food as he could in his mouth ever since the sorting had ended and the feast began.

 **=O=O=O=O=O=**

On a darker note, on Tom Marvolo Riddle also known as Lord Voldemort, was seething from inside the turban he was hiding on the top of the young defense teacher, attached to him like a leech, having seen the boy who was as he believed to be the reason for his current situation break such a prestigious record was certainly not doing his moods any favors thus he vowed to kill him mercilessly as sooon as he got his body back.

 **=O=O=O=O=O=**

The night had ended on a weird note for some of the students, they couldn't understand the ban from going on the 3rd floor, but they all unanimously decided to avoid the said floor, of course Fred and George weren't a part of that group.

Soon it came to the bed night for all and they had ended their first day new and back at Hogwarts and prepared for the days to come bt promptly falling asleep in their respective beds. Truly a new beginning had just started to unfold itself and gears of fate were beginning to grind against one another to form one Story filled with lots of Blood, Tears and Wisdom.

 **=O=O=O=O=O=**

 **A/n** : that's it for now folks, I know a slow and probably a disappointing update, to put it in short been busy with life, not to mention I had to redo it thrice already so that I could get a good feel out of it, I promise I'll strive to get out bi weekly if not weekly updates from now on. Oh and on another note the title of this chapter is in reference to both the soon to come developments of this story and the story as a whole from my point of view, it has only began and is unorganized as of yet but soon I'll try to get all my ducks in order.


	3. Chapter 3 Enigma

**Chapter 3**

 _ **Enigma**_

 _2nd September 1991, Hogwarts._

The enigma that was Harry James Potter had been shrouded in mystery since the moment he had entered the school, the day after he had established himself as the record holder for the longest sorting early in the morning the Ravenclaws went to libraries to hit the tomes and figure out what did this mean in Political, Sociological, & Magical spheres of influence. The Slytherins sent letters to their parents, especially those who came from influential families like, Malfoy, Greengrass, Urquhart, and some others as they were baffled on how to proceed, they knew they couldn't simply make enemies out of this one enigma but trying to befriend him would rock the boat, something which they didn't want to do as it would bring in the element of chaotic uncertainty which they were against on principle of things.

One bushy haired Gryffindor also chose to follow up on her house's stereotypical tendencies and chose to grab the bull by the horns, or at least tried to, she had woken up at 05:00 AM on the dot, and by 05:30 AM she was waiting in the common room for him to come down, reading the " _The Standard Book of Spells_ (Grade 1) By _Miranda Goshawk"._

While keeping an eye on the staircase down to the hall, time trickled away and other people started rousing from their respective slumber, and now it was 07:25 AM five minutes before breakfast began, so when she saw Neville Longbottom coming down the stairs, she plucked up the entirety of her courage and approached him, "Uhm, hello, excuse me could I bother you for a minute?" she questioned him, and then waited for him to answer, Neville's reaction to this question was blinking owlishly because he hadn't expected someone to confront him this early, that too just before breakfast, he really hoped that she wasn't a The-Boy-Who-Lived fangirl, they were annoying, really, really annoying, when he realized he was keeping her waited, he responded, "Sure, how may I help you, err miss?" "Granger, Hermione Granger, I wanted to ask if Harry Potter is still sleeping upstairs, as I wanted to ask him a few things and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to go in the boys dorm" "Hermione, may I call you that?", to which he continued when he received a nod from her, "he wasn't there when I woke up at 6, so I'd reckon he's probably gone to breakfast already." This answer wasn't what Hermione expected as she had began to frown when she contemplated how she had just spent nearly 2 hours waiting for someone who wasn't even there, which reaffirmed her sense of having to know ALL the facts to reach to a conclusion, thus reinforcing her curious nature, and then she snapped out of her thoughts when she heard actual snapping coming font front of her, and she looked up to one neville longbottom whose mouth was twitching in amusement, and then he asked, "Hermione, I'm pretty famished, what about you have any plans to have the breakfast today?" to which the girl replied by blushing, "Uh, yeah sorry I forgot all about it lets go shall we?" "certainly." And then they proceeded to head to breakfast keeping each other company in silence, but not one that was unwanted.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

As the first breakfast of the year was going on in the halls of Hogwarts, a host of owls suddenly arrived in and started delivering newspapers to the student and staff body alike, apparently it was a special edition, it covered both the beginning of the-boy-who-lived' start of magical education and the new record held by the enigmatic potter heir, there were some theories ranging from plausible to general gossip and some that were outright ridiculous, like Neville and Harry being a possible dueling duo due to the old alliance between their families, or Neville being trained by Dumbledore himself, Harry trying to usurp Neville's Position as the successor to the leader of light.

As the people kept reading it they all noticed one thing, while their hero was present in the hall, the raven haired talk of the hour was missing, in fact, the Gryffindors realized that they hadn't seen him at all since this last night. Neville was simply glad to get some attention off him, it was tiresome, really, he didn't hold any ill will towards his fellow gryffindor, in fact, he wanted to befriend him, but if this mysterious nature of Harry's kept him out of people's attention every now and then he was really glad for it.

Similarly Hermione and Dumbledore were also thinking about the raven haired boy, the former was getting more impatient and curious as to what the jade eyed enigma was, the latter on the other hand was internally frowning while keeping an impassive mask on his face, it wasn't a bad thought about something sinister, yesterday after the sorting and during the welcoming feast he had observed that the boy was too withdrawn, highly unlike his two former students whose child he was, both Lily and James were highly socially active, while the former was polite yet interactive, with everyone in fact, including some unbigoted Slytherins, James on the other hand was the poster boy for being a hyperactive child, while he was more wary of the slytherins compared to lily, he did gave some of them his friendship, like Cyrus Greengrass or Raphael Davies for instance. He was worried if the boy was trying to isolate himself, having taught for nearly 80 years now he had seen many students come and go and he understood that no 2 students were alike, regardless of how much similarities they possessed, so yes, he was worried for the boy who was isolating himself now, not because he didn't trust him but he was genuinely worried for him.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

Soon it was the time for the first class of the first year gryffindors along with ravenclaws, it was transfiguration, only a minute was left for the class, everyone was standing in the class except for the jade eyed enigma, with only 30 seconds remaining for the class the enigma strolled into the class and took seat at the back of the class where there was an empty class, his face as impassive as ever, looking ahead of himself yet at nothing in particular.

Professor Mcgonagall began her lecture on the introduction on transfiguration, and when only the last fifteen minutes of the class were remaining she gave them a basic spell of turning a matchstick into a silver needle, the incantation was simple, _Acus Argenti_ , which hermione later found out literally meant silver needle, the wand motions were also quite simple one clockwise round with an upward swish and downward flick to follow, and to top it off at the end of the flick the wand had to be pointed towards the needle, and soon after mcgonagall had left the class to their devices to attempt the task they had been handed she heard a loud gasp, coming from miss Granger if she was correct, what she saw had definitely left her amazed, Minerva Mcgonagall had been teaching transfiguration at hogwarts for the past 33 years now and she could swear by merlin that she hadn't seen anything like this in her entire career, a first year had just completed the _Acus Argenti_ spell on the first day itself and within the first two minutes of being handed the assignment, even if the boy was a prodigy that was simply unbelievable, she politely asked him "mr Potter, can you once again show me how you did this?" to which he nodded, and as she was about to reverse the first spell he had applied on the needle, what was shown to her was much beyond her expectations, the raven haired boy simply pointed his wand which had been resting in his hand by his side towards the matchstick and wordlessly reversed the transfiguration, after which his hand went back into his side, then he gave it a second and once again pointed his wand towards the matchstick and viola the stick turned into a needle once again, one pristine and shiny silver needle with no blemishes, transfigured from a matchstick by a first year by point casting, wordlessly, the ringing of the bell brought her out of the daze this scene had sent her into, and she immediately awarded gryffindor house 20 points for a well done transfiguration, and then she promptly dismissed the class.

Then she proceeded to go to closed confines of her office, remove her hidden bottle of fire whisky and carefully poured it in a glass she had just conjured, then unlike as slowly and carefully she had poured it, she gulped it down in a single go, and then when she belched fire as she always did after firewhiskey, she suddenly started giggling at the prospect of teaching this prodigy, she simply couldn't wait to inform rest of the staff about the happenings of today, not to mention Severus, the man had made a mockery of the point system ever since he had begin working here, oh, she had known all about his feud with James Potter and his ragtag bunch of friends, she knew he wasn't simply some innocent victim he tried to make himself look like, she also knew the grudge he held to this date, and she knew he definitely wouldn't like the fact that his former rival who was a prodigy in transfiguration, had not simply passed on his looks but also his talent in transfiguration, not to mention that the son had already seemingly surpassed the father now how he developed here on was anyone's best guess.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

Soon 2 weeks had passed since 1st of September, as Minerva had expected the news of Harry's talents was taken well by most of the staff, _most_ , of course she was not going to lose any sleep over the dour man's reaction because it was exactly as expected.

* _flashback start_ *

On 7th of September that year at the end of the first week, a teacher's meeting had been convened in the headmaster's office as was the tradition, to discuss both the progression and regression of the old students and the first impressions about the new first years. On the topic of the older students the teachers didn't had much to say except some surprising things like the Urquhart heir's choice to take up COMC as an elective unlike his predecessors who only studied Runes, and Arithmancy and never professed any interest in others, of course the pranks undertook by the Weasley twins were again a topic of discussion, also how the new prefects and the Head Boy and Girl pair were doing was also discussed.

Then as the topic turned to first years suddenly most of the first year teachers had nothing to, which was unusual because this was the time discussions about strengths and weaknesses of the new students were predicted along with their overall attitude, so every teacher usually had something to chip in, but this year the enigma that was Harry Potter had blown them away, the word of the mouth about his talents had already done their rounds, of course the credit for that belonged to Minerva.

"So how are our first years doing?" began Albus to get the ball rolling, Pomona began, "well my puffs have settled in, they seem to be doing well and from what I hear they're already putting some effort in studying also associating throughout the house, most particularly miss Abbot and miss Bones, while miss Abbot has a green thumb, she lacks in confidence, while miss Bones on the other hand, is boisterous enough for both of them and then some" Albus heard this and began chuckling fondly recalling one of his former students Amelia Bones the now Head of DMLE, both the Aunt and Niece seem alike, of course it brought along a pang of pain about the deaths of Edgar and Rachel bones, parents of young Susan, but he cleared his head from it for now was the time to think of the future.

"well my ravens have also settled in" began Flitwick, "most remarkably one miss Padma Patil, twin to miss Parvati Patil who went to Gryffindor seems to have been trying to conduct some form of research though what I do not know, but I presume it has something to do with her native roots, given the books she has been asking around for from her peers and seniors" he concluded. "Hmm, good, good" mused Albus, "Now that leaves Slytherin and Gryffindor" he prompted.

"The Slytherins are keeping to themselves as usual and have already began socializing with each other to court alliances and future contacts," began Snape "mr Malfoy has started to establish his dominance in the first years using his father's influence and the younger Crabbe and Goyle" he stated. The rest of the staff wasn't at all enthused over this fact, but knew there was little they could do about it as it was how the things worked in the snake pit, even Bathsheba the runes professor and Hooch the Quidditch and Flying instructor who were Slytherins themselves weren't fond of this but resigned themselves to it.

"Miss Greengrass and Davis are friends just like their fathers, and so it is understood that miss Davis is under the protection of miss Greengrass, and any offense towards her will not be tolerated." Of course, the Davis and Greengrass alliance was as famous as the Potter and Longbottom alliance, the former while not as old as the latter was going strong and it seemed had a bright future, while the future course of the latter was quite unknown, it didn't help that no one had seen the heirs of the two house interact at all, In fact while the Longbottom heir was polite to all and quite out going, it was a wonder that he wasn't a hufflepuff, the Potter heir hadn't interacted with anyone, almost to the point of being rude, whenever asked a question he would simply nod or shake his head, no one had even heard his voice, and when he wasn't in class performing prodigious feats, he was off to lands unknown, never seen by anyone.

And now last but not the least Mcgonagall began, "well as far as my lions are concerned, they're doing fine, in the girls section miss Patil and Brown seem to be getting along well, but they don't seem to be interested in pursuing academic brilliance, of course, it could be simply their youth and excitement of being in a new place, but, I highly doubt it after all not all fingers are of same length," she paused to take a sip from the butterbeer that had been delivered by the house elves sometime at start of the slytherin report, "then there's miss Dunbar, she's fairly average, though she also gets along with everyone, and not to forget, miss Granger, she is a genius in her own right, she soaks up information like a sponge, and has good control over her magic, she's usually one of the fastest to get a spell done in the class itself only rivaled by miss Greengrass and mr Longbottom," the unsaid mr Potter was not missed by anyone, "though she does seem to be having a hard time integrating with her peers given her drive to gather information, and their lack there of, but surprisingly speaking she does seem to get along with mr Longbottom, who for all his talents, and I'd say drive to prove himself is not a book oriented person".

taking another sip of her drink she continued, "And beginning with the boys section, there's the youngest Weasley boy, who thankfully does not share his older brother's tendency to get into shenanigans," at this chuckles went around the table, except for two, the dour man, who sneered at this, and the cat animagus who simply sighed and then forged ahead, "though he has also not inherited his other brothers academic drive, and not to mention his wand seems to be the old one used by his older brother Charlie, but there's nothing that can be done about that, the Weasleys are a family that solves their problems on their own, though hopefully this situation will get solved before anyone gets hurt," at that there were nods of understand, "there's Finnigan and Thomas who also seem to have settled in, the two usually stick with each other, and are doing well".

She paused for a moment and took another sip from her mug, "on the topic of mr Longbottom, I'd like say he has done better than my expectations, he has handled his fame brilliantly, isn't into posing, and gets along with everyone, yet understands that he holds a significant position in our society and has some responsibilities," she paused for a moment and then began "he seems to be quite good in all fields of wanded magic, though he does have an affinity for herbology quite like his mother, and is quite close to miss Granger as I had stated earlier."

Now Mcgonagall stopped once more, and took another sip from her mug, a quite long one in fact, then she began, "mr Potter, seems to be an unique one alright, I mean, in all my years at hogwarts I've never seen someone so.." "extreme," she said the word as if testing it out, "his magical skills have been adequately demonstrated by him in the classes already, and though it'd be considered quite early I'd say that he I quite possibly the most talented child to wander these halls, no offense to anyone," at which again almost everyone chuckled and nodded, except for the potions master who simply scowled deeply.

Flitwick also decided to throw in his two knuts, "well the boy is exceptionally talented, why of course, in his first class alone he demonstrated multiple charms and casted them at point and utterly silently, as usual I had them start with the _Lumos_ charm, and while I had just started to get them to follow my wand moments, the boy had simply pointed his wand skywards, and suddenly blindingly bright light came from it, I had to ask him to turn it off, and then when I asked him if he knew any other charms, he simply proceeded to nod once and perform nearly every charm in their first year book in the same point cast and silent manner, and didn't show any sign of stopping except when the bell rang he suddenly stopped, gathered his things and walked out as if nothing happened." This got the attention of every person in the room, most were either blinking owlishly, or trying to pick up their jaws which had dropped, Snape too had blinked, once, which was his equivalent of bulging eyes.

"He reminds me a lot of Pandora Lovegood nee Mcleod" began Mcgonagall once again "both magically talented yet socially inept, what was the term muggles used, ah, yes, an _idiot Savant,_ brilliant at one field yet average or below average at all others. Well the comparison isn't all that fair, while pandora was bad at socializing and generally made bad first impressions she was quite outgoing, and did try to mingle with her peers, he on the other hand has shown no such drive. Not to mention aside from a physical resemblance to his parents he is quite different from them at the same time, James was one of if not the most active and boisterous child to set foot in this school, it was a rare day when he wasn't heard laughing in the halls going around managing mischief with his friends" commented Mcgonagall, and promptly took a sip from her mug to hide any physical reaction from the pang of sadness that had hit her, the professors who had taught or studied with the boy, man, in question solemnly nodded, while others chose to keep their silence, of course the potions professor was fuming thinking about his dead rival, and sneering at how he was being remembered, something everyone took note of but chose to not comment, and then Mcgonagall continued "his eyes are so much like his mother's but different at the same time, his mother's eyes were the perfect example for the saying that the eyes of a person are the windows to their soul, so expressive, she cared for everyone, was relentlessly kind, and was quite friendly with everyone, she was no saint but knew her limits and fault and to top it all had the courage to accept them something her husband had trouble with, while his windows seem…. Barred for a lack of better description, they express an emotion I cannot put my finger on, yet it also doesn't make me uneasy as whatever lies behind them gives off a feel of innocence for whatever reason."

At this Snape got up and in a tone that conveyed his annoyance, he declared, "that boy is nothing more than an attention seeker just like his father, and that boy is… playing all of you around his fingers."

As he proceeded to storm out of the room, he was stopped by a voice. "wait, Proffesor Snape!" came the authorative voice of Albus Dumbledore, not the barmy old coot who was used to giving nonsensical answers to confuse people and generally make people forget why he was one of the greatest wizard of his age, everyone in the room had taken note of the fact that Dumbledore had called the potions master by his title rather than name which he usually did with everyone, and knew that in that moment Snape was in for a dressing down or a warning at least, "I know of your dislike towards the Gryffindor house and particularly some of its former members, but I will not tolerate you bullying a student for any reason, is that clear?"

"yes, headmaster." Gritted out Snape and made his exit leaving the door open behind him. Dumbledore closed his eyes for a few moments and took in a deep breath, and calmly said, "ladies and gentlemen, I believe that our meeting for today has met its end", most of the teachers took the dismissal for what it was and left the room, heading to their respective quarters and mulling over the whole spectacle that had taken place, once again, though indirectly, caused by the raven haired enigma.

Mcgonagall had other plans it seemed, "Albus, I hope you plan to hold onto your words because in the case Severus tries anything with mr Potter, for all of his…. Uniqueness, this time I will come after his myself", the said heamaster's face suddenly seemed loose all of its energy causing it to age well beyond his years, which was quite contrary to the indecency it possessed to belie it, "Yes Minerva, I pray to every deity in existance that it doesn't come down to that and that Severus can come over his grudge of James Potter and look to young harry for what and more importantly who he is, not only the child of his school time best friend, but also a person of his own," "yes Albus, we can but hope".

* _flashback end_ *

She was brought out of her musings by the bell that was rang before the breakfast, to alert people about it and wake up those still sleeping, not that it usually worked on those determined to sleep in, but it was still rang, and then she proceeded to join her students and fellow Professors in the great hall for the start of the day.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

Unknowingly, but, the students were having a discussion similar to the one their teachers had last week, everyone had gotten to see each other and make a judgement about their personalities and abilities, of course these judgements were quite black and white on the most part laced with a dose with prejudice, for they were children and weren't familiar with the shade of grey, the raven haired enigma was missing from the great hall as was par for the course, no one had seen him in the great hall ever since from his first appearance and presumably last appearance, in it for the sorting, they had seen him perform feats of magic which were mind boggling and got everyone's rapt attention, everyone, especially the older students, who wanted to know where he stood with, the pureblood supremacy or the muggleborn moment like Dumbledore and Longbottom. Of course no one had been able to get a hold of him much to their frustrations, he came to the classes at the last moment, followed the professor's instructions for the day, or at least tried to, as he simply, came sat at back end and performed the spell for the week, and removed a random tome and began reading.

Hermione Granger too had been simply getting more and more frustrated with the boy as he was simply escaping her grasp, which for some reason seem to endlessly amuse her only friend, the-boy-who-lived. He had also denied to help her corner the enigma for two reasons, 1) He found it amusing, 2) unlike her he thought it was wrong to ask the boy questions he didn't seem interested in answering, unless he was doing something that'd hurt others he was free to do as he pleased. While she always told him that it was probably more because of the former reason rather than the latter, to which she only received a mirthful smile, in person she believed it was actually the latter.

She understood how fans had harassed him and how difficult his fame was for him, fame which had cost him dearly, and was unasked for. But she held fast unto her convictions too, she believed that knowledge was to be spread and free by nature and one person who hogged all of it was not correct, she was the same age as him and had same magical education as him as she had learned that children do not have access to wands before age 11 because it could hurt their magical cores. So it only made sense for him to have started at the same time as them, yet he was casting spells as if he had done so for years, oh how she yearned for the possibility to ask him all about it.

While the bushy haired gryffindor was contemplating the possibilities of interrogating the enigma, a blonde haired slytherin girl had been also planning to have an audience with him, nothing as extreme as the gryffindor though, obviously, Daphne Anna Greengrass the oldest of the two sisters had been advised by her father to initiate a possible alliance with the enigma after she had informed him of the event that had taken place in the charms class, because it could be quite fruitful if they forged some kind of friendship with him, after all while money was mighty, nothing was mightier than Magical Might in their society. And so while she had thus far failed she knew how to keep her calm, and would strive for it as long as possible, another blond slytherin, Draco Lucius Malfoy had also been tasked by his father to approach the boy and offer their hand towards him, or at least a neutrality, of course they had no intention to keep the neutrality, because if he denied their friendship letting such a boy grow into his powers could be quite troublesome, so he had been trying to talk to him but kept failing much to the displeasure of both his own and his father.

 **A/N:** That's it for today folks, the chapter wasn't harry centric because that is how I want my Harry to be, he is an enigma, a walking contradiction, he is really simple at first sight but has so many layers to him that reaching from first to the second would require a lot of effort, so see you guys later, oh and the next fic will be harry centric where I will give you a better example of his personality in depth, or atleast try to do so.


	4. Chapter 4 Halloween

_**Chapter 4**_

 _ **Halloween**_

 _08:47 pm 31st October, Girls Bathroom 2nd floor, Hogwarts._

Minerva Isobell Mcgonagall will probably never going to forget the scene that was transpiring in front of her eyes, probably neither would anyone else who was with her, not her half goblin friend nor her former student turned colleague, there were four children and one dead troll with its head burned, quite possibly from inside out if her knowledge of pyrokinesis was anything to go about, inside a now destroyed bathroom, four eleven year olds who were from her house, and probably one of the biggest trolls she had ever seen, with the exceptions of some chief trolls she had seen during the war, 3 of them were huddled not far away from what was the head of the aforementioned troll, and the enigmatic boy who was standing near the troll's legs as expressionless as ever.

First she looked at the three who were looking as shocked as she was feeling, she could see ms Granger had a few scratches and she probably had been crying, but aside from that she looked fine, nothing a few spells here and a few potions there couldn't fix, then she looked at the youngest Weasley boy and the Longbottom heir both looked fine, shocked ofcourse, but not injured in any way not even the few scratches ms Granger had.

They would need a few calming potions and a few dreamless sleep potions but they'll be hopefully fine. she looked in their eyes and she could feel their terror, confusion, and the adrenaline rush in them she empathized with them having experienced it, the first close brush with death, how it uproots our illusion of our safety, makes us realize our mortality, and makes us more determined to survive.

Then she Looked at the green eyed enigma, he looked the same way he looked like in her class absolutely expressionless, he didn't look affected by the chaos surrounding him even though he seemed to have caused a good part of it, he wasn't injured just like the other two boys in the bathroom, but when she looked in his eyes, what she observed _terrified_ her more than she previously had been when she saw the dead troll, he looked like it was absolutely normal to come so close to dying and escape due what was probably a lot of dumb luck because she couldn't imagine any other way 4 children, no matter how prodigious, could take on a fully grown troll, then the sight of the dead troll brought her back to the reality and made her wonder just one thing having abandoned all other thoughts, ' _just what is this boy?'_.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _a few hours ago…._

 _01:55 pm_ _31st October, First Year Gryffindor and Slytherin Charms Class_

"...it's leviOsa not leviosA, honestly you'll poke someone's eye out" ranted Hermione to Ron, he in turn grumbled something that she couldn't make out. Neville was ruefully shaking his head exparsated at how, ….strict, his friend was. Harry on the other hand was busy reading an old tome, its title had faded out, he had simply come in the class at the last moment, again, taking his seat at the back of the class and like his peers he paid attention to the professor's lecture, then when they began the practical part of the lesson he simply removed the tome and began reading it as per his arrangement with professor Flitwick, and Mcgonagall after his demonstration in the first class.

As the class came to an end,signified by the ringing of the bell he quickly packed his things and left the class quickly as usual. As soon as he was alone he cast a disillusionment charm on himself to maneuver within the castle unseen and unstopped by anyone, at a far more sedate pace compared to others,he did over hear Weasley ranting about Granger and then Longbottom getting angry at him for it.

He also did saw Granger rushing past him, on the 2nd floor stairs, though she didn't see him, of course that had less to do with her current hysterical state and more with his charm which was quite different compared to an average person's cast, the disillusionment charm of the average witches and wizards was more like a chameleon changing color to fit into the background though this left a lot to be desired when moving around as it wasn't all that discreet due to the visible ripples it made. Another reason was that unlike them he understood how the charm worked, a scientific approach to be accurate, he was mindful of the fact that it simply dispersed the light around them in such a fashion that they were rendered invisible.

If you asked an average wizard how disillusionment worked, they would reply by showing the wand moments, and proper spell pronunciation, when you asked them for a deeper explanation all they'd be able to reply is _"because your magic willed it so"_ , while this wasn't a wrong answer, it was incomplete, so when they cast the spell their magic was picking up the slack of their understand of the mechanism of reality so to speak, and that created a strain on it causing every spell to be at least 3 times as costly in terms of magical expenditure.

For instance an easier analogy to understand would be that under a neutral environment if a person who didn't understand how heat and fire worked whom we shall call subject ' _ **A**_ ' used the incendio charm they would use around 6 MP (Magical Power) but someone who did understood this; also known as subject ' _ **B**_ '; would only be using 2 MP, similarly when placed in a cold environment subject ' _ **A**_ ' would be using 12 MP for using the same charm to the same degree of efficiency because they'd have to combat against the nature, while subject ' _ **B**_ ' would only have to use 4 MP because even though they'd be in the same circumstances as their fellow wizard they'd be armed with the knowledge that others do not, though of course subject ' _ **B**_ ' methods also came with downside like requirements for heavy concentration and attention which was mentally taxing and not possible for everyone hence why it had fallen out of favor, people had traded higher magical consumption in exchange for less stress on their mental faculties.

Working on this explanation Harry entered into his room on the 7th floor, where he would study everyday after classes, he never wasted time doing anything else for he had a goal to achieve and everything else were just things he didn't bother with, so he read and practiced magic as much as he could when he wasn't in class listening to the professor's lectures for he believed that their different point of view could help him learn something he'd have otherwise missed, it was all so simple, all for _their_ sake, soon he would be able to do _it_.

 _08:35 pm_ 31st October, _4th floor stairs, Hogwarts._

Harry was descending the stairs at a fast pace, almost similar to how he left the classes, without any disillusionment cloaking him, this was not something he did, ever, since the day he came to hogwarts he left the sanctuary of his room only when he needed to for attending his classes after which he would simply shut himself back in it, after all he had no need to spend time in the outer world, he had no needs, no desires, only one objective and he'd fulfill it.

So why was he doing this again? Simply because he had been asked to. By whom? Hogwarts. Since the day he'd been there whenever he needed something Hogwarts would help him wherever it could, by tugging his magic in the right direction, on his first night in the school he needed a place to practice magic in absolute seclusion, he felt a tug on his person and he simply followed it, soon enough he found the room which became his sanctuary, then again when he needed any tomes on transfiguration he received another tug on his being which led him to a particular section of the library, and he found his needs met, by now even though he had only experienced this phenomenon twice he'd understood,what it was, it was hogwarts, helping him, why? He didn't know. How? He didn't know. But somehow he knew it was Hogwarts. And now Hogwarts was asking something of him, it needed something to be done, was this the price of all the help he had received thus far? He was willing to pay as long as he could achieve his objective no price was too big.

And this was how he found himself standing inside the 2nd floor girls bathroom, with Granger sprawled on the floor with Weasley and Longbottom standing besides her all 3 of them screaming, and a huge troll which was inching towards them slowly but steadily, he also observed the remains of what looked like a wooden club, mentally reviewing what he knew about trolls he came up with a plan in 2 seconds, he ran up to it and jumped on it's back which might have caused his fellow students to increase the volumes of their screams, then he proceeded to poke his wand within the troll's nose and then just as he planned he used a powerful _incendio_ charm to burn the troll from inside. As soon as he was sure that the troll was dead and had started to fall towards the ground he jumped from the troll's back on to the ground and as soon as he had done standing up right professors Mcgonagall and Snape barged into the bathroom stall, followed by professor Flitwick.

He saw them assessing the situation for what it was, he saw how his classmates were still shocked he rightly assumed that it was their first brush with death, moving on he met Professor Mcgonagall' scrutinizing eyes with the same calm he displayed in her classes, because really there was no reason to panic, the threat had been neutralized, but when he did look in her eyes he saw something, what he didn't know, if someone asked him he wouldn't be able to put it into words, though whatever it was didn't bother him, if it couldn't help him achieve his objective then it was not of use to him.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

"is everything alri…." The voice of Pomona brought Minerva out of her thoughts, she turned to see the shocked expression of her longtime friend, she could understand what she was feeling, the utter… confusion this scene in front of them brought them was quite an experience. Taking charge she called out "miss Granger, misters Longbottom and Weasley are you alright?" of course she knew they weren't but it was important to know just how coherent they were, soon she received a nod from Longbottom followed by Weasley and Granger, "very well can you all follow me?" upon receiving nods once again she signalled for them to stand up and come near her. Once again she turned towards the raven haired enigma to find him as expressionless as ever, she called out to him "mr Potter the same goes for you" She received the expected nod from him, and she turned and started marching towards the infirmary, but not before turning towards the last of the entrants in the room and requesting her, "Pomona can i depend on you to inform the headmaster of this situation?" This seemed to bring her out of her stupor as she nodded not unlike the three who were earlier frozen at the head of the troll.

As soon as they had departed the bathroom an ethereal looking cat was shot out of Mcgonagall's wand which bounded ahead of them, the rest of the walk to the infirmary was short, silent,and uneventful. They encountered madam Pomphrey as soon as they entered, she got them to lie down on the first available beds and started running diagnostic charms on them starting with ms Granger, then soon when she had all the available information she started murmuring spells to fix her scrapes and scratches while fetching the required potions for all of them one Dreamless sleep and one Calming draught per head for ms Granger and misters Longbottom and Weasley. And even though she wasn't able to detect anything wrong with mr potter she instructed all four of them to stay for the night, to which they nodded, with her patients dealt with for now, she went to talk with the head of the lions to talk about her charges in the privacy of her office.

"Minerva your prognosis was correct as expected, all three of them were in shock and ms granger had only a few scratches, I've given them some potions and would like to keep all four of them here for now." Began Poppy, "all four?" questioned Minerva, "yes, even though mr Potter is not injured or in shock like the other 3 i would like to keep him under observation just in case he suffers from some sort of late post traumatic shock" Minerva's lips thinned, as much as she wanted to get to the bottom of the situation, not to mention this weird feeling she had about the raven haired boy's reactions, she couldn't deny what her colleague was saying, the risk with shocks was huge and not something she could ignore so she did the only thing she could, she sighed, deeply.

"You know it could have been much worse, and you don't need me to elaborate on the how" Began Poppy once again, "I know, merlin knows i know, but this whole situation is so… messed up" She sighed once again, "i had warned Albus against placing that damned stone in the castle, not to mention these protections, first that Cerberus and now this merlin be damned troll" Continued Minerva. "It's only a miracle that we have patients and not corpses, i hope we really don't regret keeping the stone here." And all Poppy was able to do was remain silent as she was in agreement.

"And the Potter boy, he also worries me for some reason" Began Minerva once again.

"what do you mean Minnie?" asked a confused Poppy.

"I mean the way he acts and the look i saw in his eyes he was totally unfazed by what happened today, as if nearly dying is not something to be concerned about, though i don't argue with you over how you treat your patients i don't think that mr Potter would need any treatment for possible shocks for there is none"she replied.

"Hmm…" was the only answer of the now contemplative mediwitch.

Both the colleagues spent some time in silence pondering on today's events and their own thoughts on them before bidding each other a good night.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _ _01:58 pm_ 2nd of November, 1st year Slytherin and Gryffindor Transfiguration class._

"I expect everyone will be handing in their assignments next week without failure", rang Mcgonagall's voice throughout the class clearly, and as soon as she spotted Potter packing his bag to leave as usual, she called out, "Potter a moment please." The boy in question simply looked up met her eyes and nodded once, then after everyone had left she spoke to him, "i would prefer if we took this to my office." To which he didn't respond but once she started to walk towards her office he simply followed, once inside, she shut the doors behind them and asked him to sit down, she noticed that unlike other students who whenever first entered her office were usually curious about it's layout he was entirely disinterested. She had received most of the story on what had happened from the other 3 so she wasn't going to ask for a recap.

She began "Are you doing fine mr Potter?", to which she received a nod as usual, "mr Potter can you speak?" she blurted out and before she could elaborate her reasons for asking such a question she received another nod, to which she continued, "so do you prefer not to?", another nod, "why?" he didn't react, nor did he nod nor did he shake his head. She expected him to remove a quill and parchment and begin writing down his reasons like he always did to communicate beyond nods and shakes of his head but he didn't. She frowned at this but there wasn't much she could do about this odd behavior of his, all magically strong people had their eccentricities, maybe this was his, so she changed her line of questioning, "mr Potter i hope you do realize that what you did that day on Halloween was really dangerous." another nod, "will you please explain to me why you did that?" silence, she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "very well mr Potter can you at least promise me not to do anything like that or at least try to find an alternative?" At this she received a nod but having dealt with many mischievous students and his father along with his merry band of friends and now the Weasley twins she got the feeling it was more of a nod towards the latter half of her question than the former.

She sighed, deeply.

Then she once again changed her line of questioning, "I've never seen you in the great hall or interacting with your peers, i understand that you may not want to for whatever reason, as it's obvious that you have a really different mindset compared to theirs, but you need to interact with others, you can't live in isolation" to which first she received silence and then when she thought he wasn't going to reply his head cocked to the right side as if asking "why?", she wondered if he had added a new non verbal cue to avoid talking, but something was wrong, others would have missed it but she had spent years with albus and severus both of whom were master occlumens,his body had gone slightly stiff as if expecting a negative reaction. She carefully replied, choosing her words "Because mr Potter…." taking a deep breath she began again "Harry, may i call you that?" When he nodded she continued "Harry it is not healthy to stay so isolated, especially for one so young like yourself" She still saw the same expressionless mask on his face, but there was something in his eyes, a hint of confusion and incomprehension, she didn't know what to make out of that, so she tried to change her tactics, "i knew your parents and they were people who were quite social, and i know you're not them but you should try to at least make a few friends." something in his expression changed and she couldn't put her finger on it but it gave her the feeling that she should change the topic immediately, and if at all abort this conversation, "very well mr Potter, thank you for coming here, and once again be careful."

He took the dismissal for what it was and left after nodding once.

She sighed and vowed to visit his family once whenever she has time to ask a few things.

 **A/n : once again sorry for a late and short update, thank you for your patience and happy valentines day to all.**


	5. Chapter 5 changing plans

_**Chapter 5**_

 _ **Changing plans**_

 _00:01 pm 25th of December, room of requirements, Hogwarts._

It was Christmas Eve, he didn't care about that, just like everything else, but he had heard a few things that were particularly concerning, he had overheard Granger, Weasley, and, Longbottom talking about how Dumbledore was keeping the Philosopher's Stone hidden in the forbidden 3rd floor corridor. Though the philosopher's stone could be quite useful for his plans, that wasn't what concerned him, it was the fact that they thought that Voldemort was after it, he hadn't considered the possibility that he was alive after all if he was where is he? Why isn't he doing whatever it is dark lords did generally? Was he simply too injured from all those years ago and needed the stone to heal himself? Though it made sense, why now? After all these years? There were too many questions and few answers, not to mention that the answers he had could be wrong because they were assumptions, _at best,_ at worst….

He needed information, not to mention that he also should add some offensive spells in his assortment, the ones he had right now were acceptable but they were only ones that could be learned at Hogwarts, even some of the obscure ones which he filched from either the library or found in the room of requirements, it was a real pity none of the spells were what could be called arcane magic. Well he'd deal with this little problem too somehow, after all his goals did require him to have powerful magic and inhumane control over magic.

' _Well better get started, the night has only began and it's not like i need to sleep, haven't for the past 6 years'_ he thought as he started to rearrange his earlier plans.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

He could keep his patience, he had for the past 10 years what was a few days more or less, he was lord Voldemort, _'ever since i went after that blasted boy he has been the reason for my misery'_ he thought bitterly _'whether i like it or not i will have to be cautious right now, without my full power i cannot do anything to either one of those brats nor the potter boy nor_ _ **the-boy-who-lived**_ _, especially not only when that old fool is near but i also don't know what the power to defeat me is, last time i went against it, whole and strong, yet i was defeated, and if that happens again i don't know if even my horcruxes will be able to keep me alive, no the risks far outweigh the gains, for now'._ He had been in a bad mood as of late, not only had his ploy to check out the security of the 3rd floor failed, but both the herpo-be-damned boys faced the troll and came out unscathed. _'The Longbottom brat was simply lucky, but the Potter brat was turning out to be, troublesome, not only had he broken such a prestigious record, he was proving to be every bit as prodigious as thought to be, if he couldn't be allied with he had to be neutralized as soon as possible'_

Yes, some of his old plans would need to be altered and some new plans to be formulated, but it was doable.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

Severus Snape the potions master of Hogwarts was all alone in his dungeons, nothing new about that, he was thinking deeply about something, again nothing new, he was thinking about the Potter brat, a somewhat recent development but quite frequent, what was new was that he wasn't fuming venomously or cursing the potter line, he was rationally thinking about, thinking about his interactions with him, _'no matter how much i hate to, i have to admit it the the boy is nothing like his father except for appearance.'_ he contemplated _'nor is he like his mother, she was so full of life and energy, like the season of spring, and he is so…. Cold, not unlike the chills of winter, but, but,_ _ **not unlike**_ _is not the same as_ _ **like**_ _, minerva was right there is something about him that even i couldn't put my finger on and that is making me uneasy, i can't even risk legilimency with him.'_ No matter how implausible, even the slight possibility of him have any occlumency shields stopped him from even thinking about attempting, if caught the whole community regardless of pureblood or muggleborn would come together to crucify him.

And then there was their first encounter.

 _ **Flashback start**_

 _ **(General pov)**_

All the students had entered the class and took their seats, it was the first potions lesson of the year and on one wanted to anger the professor who was known for being strict, even within the slytherin house it was known that while he may favour them within the snake pit he wasn't above taking them up to task if they were messing in his class, and as usual just at the last second, harry potter had strode in and took his seat next to Fay Dunbar, who had been sitting in the back of the class and hadn't been partnered with anyone else. While professor snape had seen all this he hadn't said anything, and then he began the attendance, he stopped once at Neville Longbottom, gave him a hard stare, and continued, then when he came to Harry Potter, he stopped yet again, and then commented, "Our Latest Celebrity", when there was no forthcoming reaction, or any at all, from the boy in question he continued and finished the rest of it as soon as he could.

Then he gave a short introduction to potions, their uses and dangers in a what one might call dramatic speech, as soon as it was over, he once again looked at harry and in a loud voice asked, "Potter, what would i get if i mixed an infusion of wormwood with Asphodel?" there came no reply from him, he was as many had noticed, when not reading a book, with an absolutely blank look on his face, "Alright, lets try this one, Potter!, what's the difference between Wolfsbane and Aconite?" once again there was no reply from the child, now the other children in the class had started to wonder if the boy had ran out of steam in his prodigious talent or was he simply so abysmal at subjects that didn't need wands.

Given they had barely started to get practical in Herbology, and no one cared about History of Magic.

Now snape was sneering at the boy, "clearly, fame isn't everything" he commented, and then he asked once again this time slowly, "Potter, what's the use of a bezoar and where would i find one?" everyone had been waiting for a reply which didn't came, after waiting for 30 seconds, snape had deducted 30 points from gryffindor for not reading ahead and being dunderheads, this was shocking to the rest of them as they had gained many points courtesy of the green eyed enigma. Then he told them the answers to his questions, and instructed them to begin taking down the notes, as this was a double class the first half was to get them to write down the theory, after which he flicked his wand towards the blank board that had been kept at the front of the classroom and suddenly there were some instructions scrawled all over it, "we'll be making the boil cure potion today, the brief instructions are on the board and the detailed ones in your book, you'll find the necessary ingredients in the cupboards" at this he pointed at the four different cupboards located at the four corners of the room, "your time begins… now"

Fay, poor Fay, when she came to hogwarts she was so excited to learn magic and make friends, when she had gone through the books she understood little of magic theory, though practical came easier to her, she had at the beginning itself found out that she wasn't good at potions, remembering all the ingredients and their reactions was tough for her, so when she realized at the beginning of the class that she had been paired with the prodigy Potter as some had been calling him she was really thankful, now though, even though she didn't grudge him for being bad at potions she just wished it wasn't her who was paired with him, everyone was going to laugh at their failure, snapping out of her thoughts she rushed to the nearest cupboard and brought back the required ingredients, she hadn't read the list but had seen what and how much her classmates were taking.

When she returned to her desk, she was treated to another bizarre sight, courtesy of her enigmatic partner of course, he was holding the potions book at eye level and flipping through it at a really fast pace as if he could absorb it, then he set the book down and closed his eyes, she thought that he was done doing whatever it was he was attempting and had given up and she was about to ask him to help her begin with the potion so that they could at least try their probable failure but then all of a sudden he opened his eyes and then turned to her, met her eyes, then looked at the ingredients in her hand and then once again met her eyes, nodded at her once and then proceeded to take her load off her hands and haphazardly pile it up on the table, again as she was about to ask him to begin he grabbed her by the shoulder and made her sit on her seat looked her in in the eyes again and then nodded again, something which made little sense to her unless he was trying to say that he'll take care of their predicament, they had come to expect the unexpected from him, but what he did next threw everyone for a loop, he just picked up their sacks of potions kit which held all of their instruments from their cauldrons, and knives to weights and vials, and then in a mad dash like a man possessed he ran out of the class, and all everyone could do was stare for the first few seconds no one reacted, then professor snape ran out of the class and presumably didn't find him as he bellowed "Potter! Detention for a week! And 200 points from gryffindor for being an arrogant miscreant who thinks he can get away with anything."

No one moved, not even the slytherins who wanted to laugh, or Hermione who wanted to give that boy a piece of her mind for disturbing the class like this, though a small part of her was really happy that he was bad at something, though she'd deny it for the life of her, as professor Snape strolled back into the class he started to glare at everyone and then groundout "what are all of you looking for, begin making your potions now!" That got the whole class moving again, all fay could do was sit down and stare at the table, she felt like crying, and right now she really was angry with him, unlike the beginning of the class.

Ten minutes had passed since the beginning of the class, and while everyone was busy chopping ingredients or minding their cauldron Fay was still sitting at her place and sniffing slightly, Neville had sneaked a few glances at her and a part of him wanted to call her to the table he shared with Hermione but he wasn't able to gather up the courage.

Then all of a sudden Harry simply rushed back into the class just like he had at the beginning and took his seat again, everyone was staring at him, he looked a little drenched but otherwise fine, then as professor snape, and fay, who looked angry, were about to say something to him he removed their potions kit from their respective sacks and placed all the right things on the table, it looked like he was about to start making the potion, it was useless, it took good coordination between 2 people to make this potion in around 40 minutes and they had only 30 minutes and both of them weren't good at potions, not to mention that any possibility of cooperation between them had been squashed by the boy's earlier actions, and then all of a sudden he started to pour the water into the cauldron and set it on medium heat at the stove, Fay took a deep breath and was about to help him out with whatever craziness he was about to do but he just turned towards her as if he had read her mind, which was impossible, right?, then he placed his right hand on her shoulder and looked her into the eyes and then gave her another one of his infernal nods once again, exhausted and out if patience she just let him do as he wished to, which he did.

He took the mortar and pestle and threw some ingredients in them, and began ground them with his left hand, simultaneously he began chopping some other ingredients, and as soon as he was done chopping those he slid them aside and began chopping some others, then he starred pouring those ingredients into the cauldron at a fast pace, while most of his actions had made little to no sense to others, Snape, Hermione, and Tracey understood what he was doing, he was following the instructions in the book in a modified manner, first of all those instructions were made while keeping 2 first year students in mind so they were made to be easy, secondly it was to teach them while making possible mistakes, but what he was doing left no room for mistakes to be made, if he messed up the potion would be a soggy mess.

Fay again couldn't understand what her partner was doing, but she understood this much whatever it was he was doing it correctly, she saw how professor Snape made no move to stop him and was carefully observing him. Then all of a sudden he started pouring ingredients in the cauldron and after every ingredient or two he would stir the potion, clockwise, and soon he had exhausted all the ingredients available to him, then he simply stopped for a few seconds and waited for something to happen, then he once again took the stirring rod in his hand and started stirring the potion in an anticlockwise direction at a quick pace, this baffled everyone, especially the professor who looked a bit alarmed because stirring in the wrong direction usually caused the potion to explode otherwise turn into a soggy mess, given that there was no explosion and had professor his wand ready to presumably vanish the potion as she had heard about him being known for doing, but when nothing happened and Harry slowed down the stirring gradually, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding in.

Soon he bottled up required amount of potion for the class assignment and proceeded to place it on the professor's desk, and just in time, as when he turned back to walk back to their table the bell signifying the end of the class rang, and a few things happened, first, the rest of the students realized that they had been so busy in observing him that they forgot to make their own assigned potion, secondly, Harry waved his wand in his table's general direction and all of his and Fay's instruments started to go into their respective sacks, and as he was about to presumably vanish the potion, professor Snape called out, "wait Potter! Leave your cauldron as it is." Then he looked him in his eyes for a few seconds and continued "your detention and point deductions still stand." To which he received a nod, and then Harry nodded to Fay once again and left the class, it's occupants flabbergasted, then professor Snape went back to his desk and ordered "the rest of you pack up your things and leave, you'll be doing your practical work next time".

Everyone hastily complied with to the orders issued by the strict man. And that was one potions class the whole of hogwarts would be taking for quite a few days to come.

 _ **Flashback end**_

The potion he had made that day was almost flawless compared to the one made by any other first year student till date, of course compared to a potions master it was little more than good enough, not perfect by any standard but better than any expected of an eleven year old child. The boy had realized that the standard kit he had was usually a little unrefined, just like everyone else, the knife a little dull and their other instruments needed to be washed before their first use, the children were informed about this little fact in their third year because it acted like a test for any who wished to become a potioneer, situational awareness was as important as any other factor if not more, just because you understand the formula for any Potion easily didn't made you a potioneer, it made you a theorist, of course honourable exceptions were made in case of those people who were unable to brew potions due to physical disabilities, coming back to the boy, he had his knives sharpened by the help of the kitchen elves it seemed and had washed the utensils himself.

Then he had also attended the detentions, _'James Potter would've never done that.'_ he had made him clean his spare potions kits, under his observation of course, the boy had done an immaculate job of it. I suppose that the best i can do is to wait and watch, and my only hope is that i don't come to regret it. _'Lily i hope you're guiding him from wherever you are.'_

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _07:00 am 25th December, Entrance to the headmaster's office._

This wasn't the first time Minerva was preparing for the conversation that waited for her, each time she prayed it was her last but it seemed none of the deities were listening to her pleas, but first she had to inform albus, hence why she was waiting for him to open his doors for today.

She didn't have to wait for long as he opened up soon, "Albus, i have some really important matters to discuss with you." She began without preamble as soon as she had entered the room without even taking a seat, and Dumbledore having known her for as long as he did knew whatever it was, was important, for her to throw out all her usual tact and manners out of the window, even if it was only the two of them. He always said that she was too strict for anyone's good, alas he began, "What seems to be the problem Minerva? You know my position on the stone, and i know that you know that i wouldn't change my mind until there is a definitely better proposition so you won't waste your time and efforts trying to change my mind, also by the lack of other staff i presume this is about one of your lions." "Yes, Albus right on all counts, it's about mr Potter." In response he only blinked once and steepled his hands, "very well, continue." "Albus… i, he…" she took a deep breath to compose herself, and at this alone albus guessed the possible cause for her behavior. "A few days ago i had sent a letter to mr Potter's family, it was regarding my concerns about his behavior, when the letter returned unopened i didn't think much of it and decided to visit them personally, and i did so on the 23rd". She again took a deep breath and then continued, "Much to my shock i found that all three of them passed away this past Halloween in a car accident".

Albus said nothing for a few moments, then he began "i see, do you plan to inform him soon?" "yes, tomorrow " "Very well, i shall begin making appropriate arrangements for him." Albus as the headmaster and the chief warlock could easily arrange placements for orphaned children, as the wizarding world didn't have a child protection service system, the orphans were usually taken in by god parents or other relatives and no one in their right mind would harm their child if out of the sheer possibility of harming their magic.

Both were settled in their own thoughts, preferring the silence that had shouded them in the office. If it were anyone else albus would've offered to break the news to the boy himself, but he knew his deputy, she wouldn't shrink from her duties just because it broke her heart, she had done this many times during the war, much to their mutual dismay.

"How about we proceed to the breakfast for the day?" Albus began again after having glanced at the clock which displayed the current time being _07:30,_ snapping out of her thoughts it took her a second to register what albus said, and more specifically why, "very well, on that note i believe that, as it it Christmas, i thinks you're due to give me a gift.", this made Albus wary, really wary, it wasn't normal for the head of the lions to indulge in such frivolities, "very well Minerva, is there anything peculiar that you would like?" he asked her as he began to leave his office with her trailing behind him, it wasn't that he hadn't already bought a gift for her, but if his friend had anything she needed and only he could procure it, then why not?, within reason of course, "hmm.." The way her expression turned to the likeness of a cat who ate the canary made Albus feel like he had walked into a trap, "how about you promise me to eventually give up those lemon drops?" he turned to her with an incredulous expression on his face, "Minerva you might as well ask me to shave my beard off and start wearing those infernal standard plain black teacher's robes" her eyes were filled with mirth and she was sporting a small smile on her face, even though he didn't show it he was quite pleased about it, "whatever tickles your fancy albus, whatever tickles your fancy."

And that was the scene everyone witnessed, a Christmas miracle if you will, their usually strict teacher was outright beaming, relatively speaking, and their usually jovial headmaster looked quite downtrodden.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _10:05 am 26th December, Mcgonagall's office._

She had one of the elves call mr Potter to her office, he entered her office at 10:00 as usual donning that expressionless mask on his face which kept others from reading him, and then he took a seat, there was an awkwardness in the air which made things quite difficult for Minerva, so at last she began, "mr Potter, i am sorry to inform you but your family was in a car accident this past Halloween and unfortunately all of them met their demise." At first she didn't receive any reaction, she waited for her message to sink in, and then much to her surprise he tilted his head towards right, she got the distinct impression that he was asking her "and? Your point?", and that more than anything else about his behavior terrified her, the possibilities it left to interpret were grim at best, "would you like to visit them? Their last rites were carried out in a cemetery near your home." To this he simply shook his head and met her eyes as if asking "is that all?", " Yes" She replied, her voice working before her brain, "i mean for now, while you can stay at hogwarts till the beginning of the summer vacations, in the meanwhile headmaster is arranging alternative guardians for you, just a bit of time is required." She added as soon as she saw him get up to leave, as soon as he had reached the door she called out once again.

"mr Potter" He turned to meet her eyes, "did you not get along with your family?" she asked the question that had been brewing inside her since the Halloween incident, to which she only received the usual blank expression and unyielding silence. "Very well mr Potter you may leave". _'Merlin, what happened to the child to make him to cavalier even about death of his family.'_ now she had a new question to haunt her.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

Complicated. That's what the situation was, there were too many unpredictable and unknown variables and arising sets of challenges with them, he tried to make the best of the situation by scraping whatever benefit he could out of it. He didn't care about what happened to the Dursleys, he had no reason to, and reasons would matter if he were capable of caring in the first place, there was but only his objective and things affecting it, the new guardians were an unknown variable,they could either prove to be an asset or hinder him, of course there was the possibility that they would remain a neutral variable, neither be of help nor create problems. That was a matter to be dealt in future when the full scope would be in view, but for now Voldemort was a problem, even the possibility that he was alive was dangerous after all, it wouldn't do to bring back his parents back to life with the murderer still around to potentially harm them again, not that he would allow something like that, ever.

 **A/n : That's it for today folks, for those of you about to point out that the golden trio didn't found out about the stone until after Christmas remember this is an au, secondly I'll jump the paces asap, i want to go through the first and second year fast. And lastly yes harry is a complex he's not exactly robotic and does have some human traits but they're highly repressed.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	6. Chapter 6 by a hair's breadth

_**Chapter 6**_

 _ **by a hair's breadth**_

 _01:50 pm 6th march, Headmaster's office._

Albus was seated in his chair with his hands steepled, and his back slouching slightly waiting for the upcoming meeting, his trusted friend and familiar was out somewhere roaming the sky, he frowned when he thought about what Minerva reported about young Harry's reaction to his family's death, it was highly worrying, his duties at the ICW and Wizengamot in addition to his duties as the headmaster were already incredibly taxing on his time, which was only possible because his faithful deputy helped him out, without her he'd be buried under work, but now with the issues created by the stone not to mention having to be on the lookout for any information on Voldemort was creating difficulties in his work as headmaster guiding his students. He wasn't able to give them as much time as he wanted to. He sighed once again, and then he sat straight as soon as the alert wards outside his office detected his charge coming up to his door, and soon he heard the expected knocking, "come in," he called out to him. Harry strode in his office with his usual expression, and stood in the center of the room, meeting his eyes and waiting for him to begin the conversation.

"Young Harry, come, have a seat," Albus began, as soon as the boy was seated he continued, "first of all you have my condolences for your family's demise, i want you to remember that we're here for you and help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it," dumbledore stopped for a second here and took a deep breath. "I'm sure that professor Mcgonagall informed you that I'll be making arrangements for your new guardians." the boy simply nodded without any outward reaction, and he couldn't help but feel how wrong the situation was.

Due to his experiences he had grown used to sensing the magic of those around him, there were wizards of his caliber and that of Voldemort and Grindelwald whose foul magic he could sense without any effort at all for they simply possessed so much of it, not to mention their habits to brandish it, if he were to make a comparison, the magic of any average first year felt like a hand held lamp, useful for light and provided a bit if warmth but that was it, an average 7th year or a recent graduate was a bonfire lit for safety, by comparison young Harry was like a forest fire, huge and out of control, he could feel it without trying to, and trying to control it externally would be a fool's errand. He felt not unlike when we was standing in front of a younger Grindelwald or Tom, the boy was definitely dabbling into dark magics, but it was also different and again as Severus said not unlike is not the same as like, the boy in front of him didn't seem to have any care for his deceased family but he didn't seem to find any glee about it, he didn't know if that was good or bad, after all apathy was at times only a step away from cruelty. He knew this boy was capable of compassion unlike those two, he had after all saved his fellow classmates from certain death, at the risk of his own life.

Snapping out of his thoughts and coming back to reality he noted something about his current charge, again unlike other children he seemed to possess quite a lot of patience, he wasn't even fidgeting which was quite hard even for a lot of adults, taking a deep breath he began, "so while i had initially thought to look through some of my contacts in the wizarding world, and though several viable options did pop up, i was recently contacted by a muggle child protection services officer, her name is ms Lane, and she sent a letter to one of our post boxes in the muggle world which were set up so that muggle parents and guardians could contact us, though she knows nothing about magic, so while she seemed to have contacted us by accident it seemed like a good arrangement to have you connected to your muggle roots." _'Not to mention it'll be easier to keep people like Lucius Malfoy from trying to get him under their influence,'_ he added mentally.

"She's planning for a foster home for you at the moment, and she would like to meet with you soon, i will arrange for you to visit her soon with professor Mcgonagall escorting you, you'll be informed about the other details as soon as they're finalized," he elaborated. The boy replied with the now expected nod and then tilted his head forward as if asking "if that'll be all" something about those gestures was bugging his academic side, it wasn't' legilimency he knew that much with surety, but it was something he had encountered in past, he couldn't recall when or where but he had, he gave his permission for the boy to leave the boy soon left leaving him alone with his thoughts. Though everything aside now all he could do was wait and hope for the best.

He sighed once.

He hated how often that was the only thing he could do.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

' _That's one less complication in my plan'_ thought Harry as he headed to his charms class with professor flitwick. _'This was the best outcome possible in this situation, it would've been preferable if no one had found out about the Dursleys and he had more free reign, they were useful as cover for guardians,'_ he had already estranged himself from them when his hogwarts letter had come, but keeping people under the illusion that he was in their care made people scrutinize him less, it opened many paths, their deaths were creating inconvenience for him. _'It wouldn't be hard to evade them,'_ he could always teleport between hogwarts and whatever foster home he was placed at, he never lied, it led to complications, but if people assumed things based on their own perceptions he wasn't obligated to correct them, he didn't unnecessarily perform what little mind magics he knew, it could harm people, unnecessary destruction was not his purpose, it was simple, magic could do anything, bringing them back would be possible, of course others didn't think like him, they called it impossible, just like muggles called magic impossible, people ignored that all was possible if the right requirements were met, just like creating a potion, or an alchemical product to be more precise it required all the ingredients to get the desired results, whenever someone said reviving the dead the mundane always thought about something so... simple like necromancy, that was just the tip of the iceberg, there was so much more possible.

Of course they also lacked the sheer power required to do something on that scale, even people like Dumbledore and Voldemort didn't have it, but even now when he had about four times as much power as compared to Dumbledore it wasn't enough, not to mention though his control over it was terrible, even with his methods of casting spells he wasted a lot of power by overpowering his spells, he needed to learn how to increase his control along with the quantity, he would need at least twice as much as power as he had now and he didn't have any idea currently on how to increase it even after his experiment last month.

 _ **Flashback start**_

He was standing in his sanctuary, the room had been converted to a large white empty room at the center of the room there was a humongous array that had been drawn in red, it looked like a small circle inside a rhombus which was inside another bigger circle, there were also four semi circles running parallel to the corners of the rhombus with some symbols in them too, and then to finish it off there was another rhombus that covered the whole array. It was also pulsing with a visible glow, most would have trouble deciphering even a single section of it, those however who were masters of runes and arithmancy would quite easily recognize the ancient arabic that made the smaller rhombus, Latin that made the semi circles , and Greek symbols that were inside those circles, and quite a lot of Sanskrit symbols that constructed the two circles too, though they were quite obscure, the weirdest were symbols that could be best described as chicken scratch which made the outer rhombus.

There was an inferno rampaging within the smallest of the circles, as if it was sentient, like a creature trying to break out of a prison, he was staring at the inferno with calculating eyes, all his preparations were done including preventive measures for any worst case scenario, and then, without any preamble he jumped into the rampant flames, the rampaging flames now turned apocalyptic, their progress was halted to within the circle, the runes that were earlier pulsing were now outright glowing, burning even. A few hours passed and the only activities in the room were rampage of the flames which were ever steady accompanied by the sound created by them, all of a sudden the flames started to calm down, and steadily started to shrink inside, and when they finally died all that was left in the now thoroughly destroyed center of the room, were a heap of ashes and a boy with no scratch or other blemish on him, nothing to provide evidence of the events that had just transpired.

Slowly the boy outstretched his hands and started to stare at his palms, he could feel it, the surge in his power threatening to spill over like a volcano ready to erupt. Unlike all those times when Uncle Vernon tried to _right his freakishness_ , when his wounds healed themselves faster after every time, snapped bones bonding back together, torn muscles knitting together and new flesh replacing the previously too damaged to be of any use. Not to mention having a body that was in general not busy feeling pain all over or maintaining blood wards made a lot of difference, _'not to mention i am now not only aware that what i have is magic, but am actively using it'._

Magic is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets, but simply having a lot of muscle mass is useless if it's quality is low or if you don't utilize each muscle to its full potential. Also just like doing; let's say 10 squats every day, won't give you a heavily muscular body no matter what, you have to increase the load on your body, try out different exercises, increase their quantity from 10 to 20 and then further, similarly while Vernon's beatings were efficient for forming a base for my magical power, they were only good so far, they forced his magic to grow stronger to rapidly heal his body again, and again, and again, but eventually his magic got used to such exercise, no matter what he did, eventually it was just like doing 10 squats a day, by the time he was 8 his beatings didn't have destructive energy to force his magic, to pose an actual challenge, the fiendfyre that he had cast was full of destructive energy that once again forced his magic to either evolve or vanquish, unlike the beatings that had escalated with time, of course the risk was proportional to the reward.

' _It was mainly possible because of what mother did,'_ Harry contemplated silently, _'though…..'_.

 _ **Flashback End**_

He had reached the charms class whilst being lost with his thoughts, noticing that the class had began he politely knocked on the door of the class and waited to be acknowledged, the diminutive professor turned towards him from where he was taking attendance for the day and said, "ah yes mr Potter do come in, headmaster had informed me that there was something he wanted to discuss with you hence i expected you to be late, please take your seat."

He didn't care what anyone thought but unnecessarily antagonizing people could be potentially troublesome for his plans, hence why he was always respectful of the adults, kept them on the edge, curious enough to give a look once over but not make them scrutinize deeply. He knew that if someone found out about his plans they would probably try to stop him, he didn't care about the reasoning behind it but the probability that outcome was not something he wanted to test out so he thought it was best that he stay in people's good graces, _'when i met Dumbledore earlier his magic fluctuated slightly after brushing against mine, probably because he sensed the aftereffects darker magic I've been practising as of late'_. He didn't view magic as dark or light, oh he fully understood the difference between them and why they were categorized so, but with proper precautions taken he was willing to use whatever necessary to bring them back, no matter the cost.

As soon as the class ended he once again snuck back into his sanctuary to work on his magic control and think up ways to increase his power.

 _ **Time Skip**_

 _12:00 pm 12 April, Spencer St, London._

Harry was seated at the small cafe just outside the city university of London, dressed in a plain white shirt and black pant, along with him was professor McGonagall dressed in a grey business suit to blend in the muggles. They were there to meet with ms Lane as professor McGonagall had informed him after one transfiguration class at the end of march, they were meeting today as it was a sunday hence he wouldn't be missing any school and it would be easier for professor McGonagall to chaperone him. From his time with the dursleys and studying in his muggle elementary school he knew how they functioned so he simply removed the outer robe of his school uniform and transfigured his shirt so that his house crest wouldn't be visible, and even though all of this was cutting into his present time which he could have used to hone his skills and progress his plans, it was an investment for future time, unsupervised time, His thoughts were interrupted by someone taking a seat across him, and when he looked up to inspect the person he presumed was ms lane, he found a blonde woman who was 5'4", she like professor McGonagall was wearing a grey business suit and had a black bag with her, she was also panting from light exhaustion, presumably from running, "so professor McGonagall how are you? How was the journey from Scotland?" She began soon after she had caught her breath, to which professor replied with a smile, and then facing towards harry she continued, "and you must be young Harry, I'm Lane, Louis Lane, though most call me Louis which is what i prefer to be addressed as, nice to meet you," by the time she was done saying all this she had held out her right hand in his direction for what he deduced was a handshake.

After having shaken hands with him she resumed her questions, "so Harry tell me about yourself?" to which harry answered by writing something down using some of the paraphernalia he had brought along himself, a notebook and a ballpoint pen, when he passed the written note to her first, she was confused and then after reading the note she was laughing really hard, then she looked in his direction but whatever she was thinking made her slowly stop laughing, getting herself in control, she began again, "so Harry i hope you understand why we're here today?" she waited for a reply which she received in the form of a nod, "there is a family, the _Laws_ , they run a foster home and they've expressed their wish to foster you, it seems like a viable option and the matriarch of the family, judy law, is someone I've heard about from my colleagues as a kind and compassionate woman, and she wants to help you, but i thought your opinion should also be heard in this matter, so what do you say?" Just like earlier she received a written reply by the boy in front of her and what was written in the note seemingly surprised her, as her eyebrows had risen high, "are you sure Harry? I mean it's alright if you want to think for some time or something?" But all she received was a nod and he looked her in the eyes as if to say that a decision has been made and the matter is to be closed. It was a weird sensation.

Her lips had thinned out then she softly told harry, "how about this Harry, can you go and buy some snacks for all of us from the counter? Whatever you'd like," she requested him as she handed him a few pounds. He nodded once and took the money heading towards the counter, as soon as she felt that he was out of earshot she turned to McGonagall and began, "okay, i see what you meant that day". The both of them had exchanged a few letters because Louis wanted to know a bit about harry before meeting him and Minerva because she wanted to get a feel of the kind if person Louis was, and if she could be trusted with young Harry's life.

Louis removed her own notebook and pen and began "professor Mcgonagall do you mind if i had a few questions about your school?"

"call me Minerva, Louis, and no i don't mind especially if it helps that boy in any way," came the reply.

"Does your school has a counsellor?"

"No, not a specialized counsellor, but our school's nurse has what we believe to be sufficient knowledge about psychology,and if she ever feels like she's out of her depth with any of out students or if a more advanced intervention is necessary she refers them to some of the best psychologists we're in touch with," McGonagall replied as truthfully as she could, which meant in this instance she was only keeping out the magical aspect of the healing.

"Hmm, okay," Here she wrote down a few notes and then continued, "okay so your school is a legacy school right? As in children of the alumnus receive invitations for attending it?".

"Yes," Was Minerva's short yet curt reply.

"And Harry's fees and other academic needs are being met? And is he in need of any financial support with regards to the same for the foreseeable future?"

"I'd like to believe that his academic needs are being met, and no all of his tuition and extracurricular expenses have been met as per the directions left by his parents in the contract signed with the school, most probably from the trust fund they set up for him," was the reply, Minerva had gringotts send a few financial records of the Potter family to the young woman in front of her so that she could get a grasp on his financial and legal needs for harry that would have to be attended, of course it was all forged by gringotts, and for a fee.

At this Louis sighed softly, "thank god for that, a lot of children who enter the system have to abandon good education because they're unable to receive scholarships and run into some or other kind of financial or legal issues at school," She elaborated so as to she wouldn't be misunderstood by the loco parent of her to be charge.

At first Minerva only replied with a soft smile and a nod of understanding, then she added, "starting from the third year the students get to visit a local village near the school, it allows them to not only let out a but of steam so to speak but also teaches them to be responsible and independent, but we also ask for parental or guardian consent for the same, so should we contact you for that or ms law, for that reason, should an emergency arise whom should we contact?"

Understanding that they were merely covering precautions she replied, "should Harry choose to stay with the Laws then yes you'll have to contact them for any formalities, but yes in case of a medical issue i would like to be notified".

Minerva gave another nod of understanding at this.

Louis' lips thinned once again and she began, "most of what needs to be done has been covered in his case, and from what it seems he doesn't mind being placed with the laws," at this she picked up the note harry had earlier given her, it read, _'i accept'._ Though from what you've told me of his behavior i believe he might be living with the autistic syndrome".

At this Minerva's eyebrows shot up.

Louis held up her hand to forestall any questions and continued, "of course this isn't really an official diagnosis, the last case i handled was of a girl who is autistic and Harry is displaying similar attitude," At which point she held up the first note Harry had given her which held the answer for her question to him for describing himself and apparently the boy had given a physical description, "i would like to have him formally diagnosed by some of our psychologist over the vacation before pronouncing any judgement, just ro cover all the bases".

At this, outwardly Minerva only gave a nod but on the inside she was troubled, she didn't know what was autism, or how to handle this situation, so she decided that she'll have wait before taking any steps, not he preferred course of action. But before she could say anything ms lane announced, "hmm, i think we're done for the day," And he realized with a start that she was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice Harry return with snacks, only 2 cups of tea with scones, and placed one of each in front of her and Louis along with the remaining change next to her cup of tea, at which Louis commented, "sweetheart didn't you get something for yourself? What happened? did you not like anything that was offered on the menu?" at this Harry just shook his head and picked up his notebook and started writing something, but this time he didn't pass any notes to either of them and they understood, _'change the topic'_ "okay, so both of you i hope to see you soon, and goodbye for today!" At this she had gotten up from her seat and proceeded to gather her stuff but not before giving Harry's notebook a pointed look.

"Goodbye ms Lane, and indeed i look forward to meeting you again," Replied Minerva curtly.

As expected there was no reply from their charge.

As soon as she had left Minerva addressed the boy, "Harry, it is about time that we leave for school." He stopped writing, looked at her once, then he packed up all of his stuff and stood up waiting for further instructions, at that minerva took his hand and guided him to the nearest apparition point, and apparated back to Hogsmeade, when they reached there Harry was staring at her in a fashion she recognized being asked for dismissal, granting him what he wanted she started trailing behind him as he hurried to the castle, and then disappeared as soon as they entered it, she marched towards the headmaster's office, she had a lot to discuss with him.

 **A/n : really really sorry for the delay, i had to make some calls in this chapter which would influence how the story progressed, hence my procrastination from writing.**

 **Think of Harry as a neutral doomsday, whatever you do to him he'll simply return stronger.**

 **Harry isn't actually autistic, but his behavior is simply the result of the dursleys abuse on him, not that louis or minnie know, so I'd like to apologize to anyone offended by that. And her (louis) name was in reference to lane from dc, supe's otp. Because i wanna do a dc/marvel x hp crossover in future using this harry as the base, but that isn't for some time until we finish like the fourth year.**

 **Oh and I'll be wrapping over the first year in the next 2 chapters.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	7. Chapter 7 his equal

_**chapter 7**_

 _ **His equal**_

 _07:33 pm 4th June, Hogwarts underground chambers._

 ***** Voldemort screamed "SEIZE HIM!" and the next second, Harry felt Quirrell's hand close on his wrist, but not for long, Quirrell let go of him. Quirrell had hunched in pain, looking at his fingers — they were blistering before his eyes.

"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off his feet landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck.

"Master, I cannot hold him — my hands — my hands!" and Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms — Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.

"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort.

Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face — "AAAARGH!"

Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering, too, and then Harry knew: Quirrell couldn't touch his bareskin, not without suffering terrible pain — his only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse.

Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off, he could hear Quirrell's shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"

He felt Quirrell's arm wrenched from his grasp, and fell into blackness, down…down… down…. **(*1)**

 _Twenty five minutes ago, Room of Requirements._

Harry was working on one of the spells offensive spells he had been intending to create, it was quite simple, a physical flux of gravity which could be altered at whims of the caster, it could be used in a number of ways to achieve a wide range of results. It's inspiration came from legends of the Norse God _Odin_ the god of wisdom & war amongst other aspects, and his use of _Odin Force_ , the mystical energy he is said to wield like an extension of himself.

The closest understanding of the odin force that harry was able to make was that of Gravity. Of course there were other gravity manipulationspells like _Schwere_ the german spell that literally allowed the user to increase or decrease the gravity of any particular area, it was a spell that while had a lot of potential but was generally disused because of its enormous magic requirements, not to mention obscurity and the fact that - his thoughts were interrupted by a tug on his magic he was all too familiar with by now, Hogwarts was calling him out and it was quite similar to the time when he had been called to deal with the troll, except this time it was urgent, if last time hogwarts was buzzing him with instructions this time it was screeching.

He got out of his sanctuary and sent out a magical pulse of his own towards the ward stone of hogwarts which was situated directly below the entrance chamber, of course half a kilometer but still directly below it, and he received a reply which was the most direct and what would qualify for a proper reply was a vision of a particular path leading from his position to the 3rd floor forbidden corridor, as soon as he even thought of teleporting to the corridor in question he received another pulse from hogwarts which was quite clearly an order against doing so, without giving it another thought he started running towards the grand staircase as he was instructed to, on the way though he sent out another pulse of magic, this time it was meant to sweep the residents of castle for to search for a specific person, the headmaster, and when he was done with the sweep as he had thought, he wasn't there, hence why Hogwarts was contacting him for help.

As soon as he reached at the staircase, there was a swirl of energy which surrounded him which he recognized as belonging to Hogwarts, unalarmed he kept progressing towards his destination, and soon he encountered Bones, Granger and Weasley being led by Longbottom, they were hurrying down the stairs just next to him yet they didn't notice him, Hogwarts was cloaking him from being detected by others, had it been anyone else they might have wondered the why this was happening but given he wasn't anyone else he didn't. And Hogwarts was now instructing him to go faster so that is what he did.

Leaving the quartet behind he soon reached an intersection at the sixth floor, there were two corridors, one was straight which would take him to his destination as soon as possible and another was towards the right which would be a detour delaying him by three minutes at least, and he thought that it was no coincidence that he encountered those four, that too mere moments after hogwarts decided to cloak him from being seen, he brought out his wand and forgoing any subtlety and control he had been working towards, he cast the strongest wizard notice me not charms and compulsion charms he could the former hid the shorter route from all those who weren't at least competent enough in occlumency to fight against his charm, like Dumbledore, while the latter similarly compelled those who couldn't fight the former to take the detour without a second thought of suspicion, all in all it took him five seconds, after which he again set pace towards his destination, soon he reached the fourth floor where he again encountered one such opportunity and he utilized it just as he had before.

And now 10 minutes from the time he had began his sprint he was standing outside the door of the forbidden corridor, with a wordless _Alohamora_ he opened the locked door and entered it, closing the door behind him, he saw the humongous _cerberus_ that had been seemingly sleeping before he entered the door and was now growling at him, he had read that music could put these creatures to sleep, he knew nothing of music, something he would need to fix he supposed, as for the cerberus, he simply looked into the eyes of the creature in front of him and while looking at all the three heads, he let loose a fraction of his power in a show, the dog that had been growling was now whimpering, huddled in the corner of the room, he hadn't hurt the dog as it was innocent, there was no need to cause needless destruction.

He forged ahead and jumped down the trapdoor the dog was previously covering, below the trap door he found some _Devilsnare_ which was trying its best to not touch him, so he found himself standing in a corridor which led to another room, following the path he discovered that the room in question was pretty simple and and it even had a door to pass by from, except there were many flying keys there out of which probably only one would open the door and without a doubt the rest of the keys would attack any unauthorized person approaching it, so the problem was the door, in another world and time one harry potter would describe the situation a _s adorable_ , undeterred he marched forward and again with a wordless, yet overpowered, _Alohamora_ he opened the door and closed it behind him as soon as he had passed it, he heard what was quite probably a few keys hitting the door at great speed, ignoring it he proceeded to the next chamber.

In this chamber he found a giant chess game wherein the black set was positioned as the challenger and the white set was positioned as the defender beyond which lied the exit from this chamber, it took him a single glance to deduce that it served to be both a hazardous trap but also stall the intruders, for others it would be quite a problem for him it was quite simple, he vanished from the spot he was standing only to reappear behind the white set just in arms reach to the exit, of course he would have preferred to teleport from the entrance to here and beyond directly but he couldn't teleport somewhere he hadn't seen.

In the chamber past the chess set he saw a dead troll and concluded that his adversary was nearby, upon reaching the next chamber he saw there was a shelf upon which there were 7 bottles, and a piece of parchment, and the entrance to the next chamber was engulfed in black flames, the infamous _Flammes des ténèbres_ an extreme hybrid variant of the incendio charm which produced some black flames with the help of some runes courtesy of some french runemasters, it was highly intricate piece of rune work and charms, not to mention the flames while more destructive compared to the basic incendio and quite harmless to _fiendfyre_ , were quite hard to extinguish in their own right.

Also he noticed that the entry he had came through was now engulfed in purple flames, he had read about them too the _lahib alsahra' alty la tandab_ , developed in the desserts of persia were a relatively harmless wall of flames though were hard to extinguish just like _Flammes des ténèbres._

He strolled to the table in front of him and picked up the parchment, reading the riddle written on it and then immediately he picked up the bottle which held the flame immunity potion that could be used to cross these flames, he could have of course simply extinguished the flames that was if he needed to do so in the first place, given his proficiency in Pyrokinesis and his work with _Fiendfyre_ , but he wasn't wasteful of any additional resources he could get his hands on, and not to mention if any wizard or witch couldn't cross these flames without the use of the potion then they wouldn't be of much use in the upcoming confrontation.

Gulping down the contents of the entire bottle in one go, he waited to let the potion take effect, in the meanwhile he utterly destroyed the table and the rest of the bottles kept there, vanishing the remains in the aftermath, lest the quartet somehow find themselves here by any stroke of luck, they wouldn't end up killing themselves by the poison.

He hurried through the flames and reached a big chamber where a man was standing in front of a mirror, he recognized the man as professor Quirinus Quirrell and when he saw the mirror he read the transcription of "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" which he immediately figured as saying _I show not your face but your heart's desire,_ ignoring it for now he tried to sneak up to Quirrell and end the fight before it could truly start, with his wand in his hand going through a list of all the spells he could think of using at the moment, _'Gaea, Zeus, Fiendfyre, Supernova, ….'_ his thoughts were interrupted by a disarming charm that hit him all too unexpectedly, and he saw that professor quirrell, the man who was too scared of his own shadow as some of his classmates were used to saying, he had never really took notice of the man, never caring to, was now standing in front of him, with a triumphant smile on his face as he caught the wand that he had disarmed and then he snapped that wand and threw its pieces behind him.

"Ah, mr Potter, a pleasure to meet you really," began Quirrell calmly.

Harry's reply was as usual silently stare at the man in front of him.

"Hmm, nothing to say as usual i suppose," mused Quirrell.

Again his musings were met with silence and a stare.

"I suppose time to end this, nice meeting you mr Potter," said Quirrell as he raised his wand to perform some kind of spell.

"Wait Quirinus, let me speak to him face to face," came a gravelly voice from Quirrell's turban.

"Master, you are not strong enough!," requested Quirrell in a far more polite and formal tone than before.

"I am for this," replied the gravelly voice.

And slowly Quirrell unwound his turban and revealed another face that was attached to the back of his head, harry who had been watching all this had remained silent and unreactive outwardly but on the inside he was thinking, _'he was there all along, the man responsible for their deaths!, i overestimated myself, my failure could have jeopardized my plans, even if i had somehow brought them back this man could have killed them again, having more power than your enemy was useless if they could take you down faster with their experience, i could have failed them, failure is not acceptable'_ , at that moment harry who had an epiphany of sorts, one, compared to his enemies he had no practical experience in combat, two, his body which was underdeveloped even for his own age group stood little chance against someone older and mature, not to mention physically fitter than him, he wasn't truly worried about dying he had survived the Dursleys, and _Fiendfyre_ , he would survive this too, it was not some kind of self reassurance but a simple matter of fact.

"Harry potter the real boy who lived, my greetings to you," began Voldemort.

He had seen how the boy didn't speak at all and had heard from Mcgonagall how it might be one of the eccentricities he developed due to his large reserves of magic, easily rivaling those of his own at his prime as he had detected them during the beginning of the year, so he continued, "Harry, we're both wizards of unmatched calibers, we shouldn't be opposing one another, if we join forces we could easily rule the world as equals!" he proclaimed, "what happened to your parents were just an unfortunate misunderstanding, become my ally and i shall grant you knowledge of the arcane, the dark and forbidden, the power to bring back your parents, and i have paid my price for that already as you see, i am nothing more than a mere shadow and vapour of my former self, i have form only when i can share another's body.. But there have always been those who have willing to let me inside their hearts and mind, Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks, my faithful servant quirinus drinking it for me in the forest," at this he turned to look at the mirror "and now once i have the elixir of life, i will be able to create a body of my own".

Harry who had been watching all this happen suddenly got up and jumped a little further away from where he was lying, trying to use his enemy's monologue to his advantage jumped a little further away from where he had been lying, trying to come up with a plan on how to deal with this situation, the only few ideas he had were to, one, stall till help comes, or, two, somehow engulf Quirrell into the _Flammes des ténèbres_ , his eyes followed the mirror Voldemort was looking at and he saw in it.

He saw.

His family, his parents alive, surrounded by other people he did not know about, and he was standing there with them, smiling, then at once the him and his parents in the mirror looked up at something, his eyes followed but failed to see anything, they looked back at him, and all of a sudden his father winked at him and pointed at his pocket, where he felt a weight settle, he realized it was the Philosopher's stone, what Voldemort needed, and if he could destroy it by using _Flammes des ténèbres_ then it would be a victory for now.

He turned to look at the black flames and thought out his actions, but it was for naught, as for whatever reason, Voldemort started screaming "Seize him!..."

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

Albus Dumbledore had come back from the ministry in a hurry, for the first time in years he was scared, not unlike the times in war where everyday he woke up with a feeling of dread for the lives of his fellow witches and wizards.

He had encountered Harald, young Neville's post owl just a few minutes ago, during one of his apparation jumps, tom had truly out maneuvered him this time, he put some low leveled clerks at the ministry to send him an errant summon, and make him take a wild goose chase, thankfully he had seen through it soon enough, though unfortunately too late at the same time, every minute given to tom to work towards regaining his body was dangerous, so with a speed belying his age he proceeded towards the third floor corridor and then to the underground chambers, he had seen how Fluffy, the Cerberus, was acting oddly terrified, he had seen how the Devilsnare put up by Pomona had been burned, the keys charmed by Filius were still intact but the door was barely holding up, and then he came up to a sight which nearly stopped him in his tracks, there were young Neville, miss Bones and miss Granger surrounding young mr Weasley who seemed to be unconscious, he feared for the worst and picked up his speed, and at the same time young Neville had seen him and shouted, "professor Dumbledore!" with a pleading tone.

The other two children who were conscious with him also saw him and made similar exclamations, he didn't pay much attention to them as he started running diagnostic charms on young Ronald, much to his relief the boy was merely unconscious, though had a concussion, he called out "Fawkes!" and all of a sudden his faithful companion came by his side, he wished he had been able to call him from the ministry itself but there were limitations as to how far Fawkes could be summoned from, even with their bond 20 kilometers was the most distance and for a wizard his calibre that was an easy apparation to make, abandoning his thoughts, he relayed his directions to his friends and then looked at the three children surrounding their injured friend, and instructed them, "all three of you grab one of Fawkes' tail feather by one hand and mr Weasley by the other, fawkes here shall take you to the infirmary! Go now".

Without hesitation the children followed his directions and once they were safe out of harms ways with fury etched on his face Dumbledore strode towards the still alight _lahib alsahra' alty la tandab_

which was since it wasn't meant to happen unless there was someone present in the next chamber, prepared for a confrontation he flared his magic to its peak, old magic, mature magic, powerful magic, and above all, destructive magic, the walls of flame stood no chance in front of a furious Dumbledore, they extinguished out of existence with a single, small, movement of his wand, much to his surprise the chamber was empty, so the flames had somehow malfunctioned, he concluded as he strode towards the _Flammes des ténèbres_ with a hard and long arc of his wand these too were extinguished, what he saw was definitely not what he had expected. Ever.

There was lying the traitorous professor Quirrell, his body was charred as if he had been burned through _Flammes des ténèbres,_ though what was more horrible was Tom's face sticking out of the boy, in all his fury Dumbledore roared "TOM!" but before he could do anything else a black miasma broke through the husk of the former professor and took the shape of the aforementioned dark lord and it fled out of the chamber faster than thought possible.

Dumbledore looked around to find clues as to what had transpired, finding nothing wrong he concluded that Quirrell's body was probably no longer able to handle the burden of housing tom hence it disintegrated, even though he doubted his conclusion was correct, this seemed to be the only plausible explanation for now, then he sent some messenger patronus to Severus and Minerva, to ask their help to clean up this place as soon as possible, covering the deceased professor's body with a conjured white cloth he went towards the mirror to check upon it and the stone in it, while the mirror was fine the stone was missing and that worried him greatly.

From what he had seen Tom didn't had the stone, the children never reached the last chamber, thankfully, but still that meant even they didn't have the stone which meant most likely some 3rd party, some unknown had the stone, this could be dangerous, someone who killed Quirinus the way they had especially in Tom's presence, and escape undetected could be another dark lord in rising, for a moment his mind wandered off towards young Harry, but he dismissed that thought just as soon as it came, for someone so young regardless of all his talents and what seemed to be experimentations in magic couldn't defeat Tom like this, even in his weakened state.

Feeling frustrated, helpless, and defeated, not to mention confused and every last one of his 110 years Dumbledore sighed deeply and moved to greet his friends as soon as he heard them entering the chambers.

He had a lot of work to do, not to mention somehow break this news to the Flamels, and that alone broke his heart, to inform his mentor, that his stone was now quite possibly in the hands of someone who quite possibly would use it for ill.

12:30 pm 5th July, Hogwarts infirmary.

Dumbledore had come to visit young mr Weasley to check up on his health after the ordeal he had been through, much to his delight but not surprise he found young Neville, ms Bones and ms Granger surrounding his bed chatting with him, _'ah friendship!'_ , he almost felt bad for interrupting them, but this could help in future, so he began by clearing his throat, "uh uh uh, i apologize for interrupting your meeting but i would like to have some words with the four of you," he began.

The four kids startled by the sudden arrival of their headmaster whipped their heads in his direction so fast that dumbledore was in wonder about how they didn't have any whiplash, and then they chorused "professor Dumbledore!".

Neville who had been sitting left to ron's bed, and closest to Dumbledore started getting up to offer his seat to the headmaster, Dumbledore called out '"remain seated young Neville, i will make my own arrangements for seating," waving his wand once he conjured a velvet red recliner and took seat look at the children who was looking at him with awe, his eyes twinkling at them.

It was not some magic of arcane but it still caught their awe they had never seen heir headmaster perform magic in front of them, but the utter ease by which he conjured the chair was what got their attention, of course the only man credited of being feared by the dark lord Voldemort was as strong as his legends, "hmm, so mr Weasley how are you?"

"I'm alright sir," he replied.

"Of course, Madam Pomphrey is good at what she does," Dumbledore began, "Ronald, while it was highly brave of you do do what you did, it would be highly preferable if you didn't attempt something like that again".

The quartet looked quite chagrined at this, and Neville was about to speak up, presumably to defend themselves, especially his injured friend, but Dumbledore held up his hand to stall him and continued "Minerva informed me that you approached her first, and she really regrets not taking your warning seriously, as they say hindsight 20/20, and she was blaming herself for young Ronald's injury, i ask of you to forgive her". He saw that the children were taking his words seriously, so he continued, "we know that you also tried to approach professor Sprout but weren't able to find her, so yes while we understand why you did what you did, again, like i said it would be preferable if you didn't".

Now Susan spoke up, "so sir, was you-know-who really after the stone?"

"Call him Voldemort ms Bones," he ignored how Susan and Ron flinched "and yes, they were after it, but for now you can remove your worries about Quirrell, voldemort and the stone from your mind for now".

"So it was Quirrell!" exclaimed Neville.

"Pardon?" questioned Dumbledore.

At this the quartet squirmed a bit then Hermione began, "all this time we thought that professor Snape was after the stone and professor Quirrel was trying to stop him, but after we saw him at breakfast this morning, we, especially Susan," at this the girl in question blushed, "deduced that we had it wrong the whole time, and it was the opposite of what we were thinking".

As Hermione was speaking Dumbledore's eyebrows had been climbing steadily, and when she was done he chuckled slightly and began, "well i can see how you came to that conclusion, but no, it was as you now realize, with professor Snape protecting the stone and not the other way around".

"And what happened to professor Quirrell?" questioned Neville.

For a few seconds Dumbledore looked at the determined faces of the quartet, and then hoping that what he was doing was not wrong and wouldn't become one of his many regrets, "he's dead, most probably because of his failure to get the stone for Voldemort," _'it wasn't a lie, but they didn't need to know the whole truth'_.

The faces of the children were stark white, Dumbledore understood how they were feeling, giving them a small smile he said, "well, i think i'll see you at dinner today, unfortunately i'll be missing out the lunch," once again growing somber he looked at the children and told them softly "for now i want you to worry only about your studies, and having fun, is that clear?"

The children nodded and at this Dumbledore left them to their thoughts.

 **A/n : That's it for today folks!**

 **" _Flammes des ténèbres",_ is French for "flames of darkness".**

 **"lahib alsahra' alty la tandab" is arabic for flames of the unyielding desert.**

 **Hope you liked it.**


	8. Chapter 8 Naive

_**Chapter 8**_

 _ **Naive**_

 _11:25 am 9th June, Hogwarts._

Naive, that is what he'd been this whole time, so used to being assured of himself, his plans, he really needed a good wake up call, and he had just received it in the most effective - if also unwelcomed - way. His actions were too careless, planning too sloppy, perhaps he'd somewhere along the line had got lost in the new luxuries afforded to him by his environment, it was time for him to be hard on himself, to move out of his comfort zone, and achieve what he was there to achieve.

He sighed once. Heavily.

Then he moved to look at the grounds the last of the students leaving, it was a sight that always endeared him, students who had grown another year, not only under him but along him, it didn't matter how many years he had been teaching but each year bought its new experiences and lessons just like it brought new students, his mind drifted towards a particular group of students, specifically the four who had ventured down the underground chambers to protect the stone, from Snape as far as they were concerned, but while their attempt was misguided and information lacking, it was the courage that counted, also given that they first did try to approach someone in authority rather than jumping without looking ahead, so yes he was proud of them, at the same time highly worried, he just hoped he can make it upto them, and that those children wouldn't have to be embroiled in a senseless war like their parents were, and if not that at least he would be able to arm them sufficiently, young Neville especially.

He turned from where he was standing, in his office, near the window, and then he looked at the subject of his current predicament, a letter, sent to him by his mentor and friend Nicholas and his wife Perenelle, though she had too taught him quite a lot he considered her to be more like a mother than simply a mentor, she was after all quite like his own mother Kendra, and there was nothing worse than knowing that not only had his mistakes cost them so much aside from the pain it caused them, but they actually forgave him for it, given that he hadn't deserved it, especially since they were going to destroy the stone soon at the summer equinox, all said and done, now the only thing they could hope for was that whoever held the stone now didn't brought forth unimaginable death and destruction.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _07:35 pm 4th June, Hogwarts Room of Requirements._

Harry opened his eyes and immediately got up and into a sitting position, a look at his surroundings told him he was in his sanctuary, the stone was safely within his grasp, and not to mention from last what he had seen of Quirrell he was beyond help, and at that moment if someone like Flitwick, Minerva, Snape, or Dumbledore had seen him they'd assume that he looked angry, there was nothing overt in his facial expression, but, his body language looked liked a string that had been pulled so tight that it was about to snap, but that would be an assumption, not based on facts but on their own perception, in reality Harry was busy replaying the whole scenario in his mind, starting from when he reached the forbidden corridor, first he went through the events as they were, then he went through them again, this time he analyzed where he could have made better judgement based on the abilities he had at the moment - like simply unleashing a torrent of his _Fiendfyre_ on Quirrell or simply burying him alive hundreds of feet below the chamber using _Gaea_ , but he hadn't, he had been naive and underestimated the importance of experience in battle - and trying to gather any facts he had missed the previously, then he was overlapping the events with some of the schematics he had right now, skills and spells he had started creating and learning albeit they were still a work in progress, he would have to increase his speed, be more efficient.

Then he went over the key points that he concluded from today's events.

He had to study whatever his mother had done more deeply than before since whatever happened today, - a few days after he had entered the wizarding world and made the plan to bring back his parents he had gone to the place where it had all started, _Godrics Hollow_ , and inspected the murder scenes of both of his parents, while he hadn't found anything near his father's place, he had found a blood contract, just above where his mother had died, he hadn't known that back then and was able to make little to no sense of the symbols etched on the ceiling, but had made note of it and through his research on magic he had learned of blood contracts and practical implementations of runes in them, - the power that defeated Quirrell and by extension once again defeated Voldemort were not his _own_ , right now he had no idea of what they were but they had a pyrokinetic feel to them, not only because they burned his opponent but also because of the heat he felt at that moment, and this ignorance was _**not good**_ , depending on what it was it could affect how he would bring them back, especially his mother, at first he had been working on the assumption that the contract simply took one life (mother in this instance) in exchange of protecting another (him) from the one who took the life (Voldemort) of the first one, but that kind of magic shouldn't be so…. _Potent_ , so, long lasting, and given that the term used in that contract was _Anima_ , which meant life in latin and he had been working on that assumption, but he had failed to take into consideration a scenario where it wasn't life but possibly soul which was being referred to, which made the matters quite complicated, so yes, another study of the contract was necessary.

He needed to increase his speed at which he had been completing his current projects and start working on future ones. Fast.

Deal with the Philosopher's stone he was in possession of.

He stood up, and picked up the broken wand that had been lying ignored near him, hogwarts sent both him and his wand to this room as soon as the fight was over, quite possibly like an incentive for helping out, afterall it wouldn't be good if someone, especially the headmaster, discovered him in that state, he would be under quite a lot of scrutiny, not that he could possibly care about it, but the headmaster could stop him from achieving his goals, not to mention he could also create problems after his goals had been achieved. As he had started to come to the realization that bringing back his parents was not a simple matter of making habitable and functional bodies for their souls, but also providing them with other amenities like social interaction, hence, not antagonising someone who could destroy that was a basic facet of his plan. ' _Of course should they truly become more than a hypothetical threat they would be taken out of the equation_ '.

Snapping out of his thoughts he focused once again on the wand in his hand, he brought together both the pieces, holding them together linking one broken end to the other in such a fashion that the wand didn't look broken at all, and then he poured his magic not simply through the wand as he did to perform spells but also on the wand, it was a simple _reparo_ spell used to fix what was broken, but the sheer scale of power dumped into the spell made it so that not even the best wandmaker would be able to tell if the wand was ever harmed, his wand, 13 Inches of Indian Banyan tree along with a core of tail feather of a Raven, custom made by Ollivander after every other wand in his shop failed to be a match for him, it had served him well as it was meant to, it still had utility to him, the nature of utility might have changed but it was useful nonetheless, he slowly tucked it within the wand holster he had bought with the wand and removed the stone that was in his pocket and started contemplating what to do with it.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

09:02 am 18th June, Law foster home, room No 13.

It had been 2 weeks since the debacle with the stone, he had analyzed the stone whenever he could, he had poured his magic in the stone so that he could get a feel for it, the stone held nearly 5 centuries worth of knowledge, all for him to learn, every time the Flamels had used the stone they had left an imprint of their magic on it and 5 centuries worth of imprints meant he could interact with them just like one would interact with a magical portrait, except where the latter held the personality of the subject, hence they dispersed any and every bit of knowledge at their discretion, and forcing them to do otherwise was a time consuming and delicate affair, while the former similar to the latter, didn't have the same safeguards, it was easy for him to learn all he wanted to from it, his knowledge of all fields of magics took a sharp increase, he had gained a lot of knowledge of what could be called the Arcane, though he would probably would never use them, for most of those spells were, inefficient, incomplete, and above all inferior to the spells he had been working on, at least that is what he had found in his study.

Now, he was going to send the stone back to the people whom it belonged to, but that was an issue he had to tackle after he was done disposing _his breakfast_ , every morning he received a plate of eggs with a glass of milk, and he took it to his room while others thought he was going to eat it, he packed it and everyday he diligently gave it to homeless people he could find, he didn't eat, he hadn't eaten anything since the time he was four and uncle Vernon decided not to waste rations on him, but he was not a wasteful person, and he decided to best utilize these resources by giving them to those who would need them, also he knew that the mundane, magical or otherwise frowned on such….abnormal behavior, hence why he kept up the ruse, it helped that people usually left him alone, except ms Judy, the matriarch of this family who interacted with him every evening, and asked him general questions for some reason he couldn't understand yet.

He changed into another set of his school shirt and pants, transfigured in the exact way as they had been when they had met ms Lane, he hadn't cared for something like this ever, he never got his clothes dirty, since he didn't sweat his clothes never smelled bad and since he didn't take baths he never had an occasion to change clothes, and whatever dust and grime that latched itself onto his clothes was usually disappeared using a simple _Evanesco_ charm, but, here it was expected of him to change clothes daily, to take baths daily, and to carry out other menial tasks that the mundane performed, though time consuming he performed them because it was easier than trying to skirt around them.

Stuffing the packed food in the pocket of his trousers which had been enlarged with an undetectable extension charm, he got out of his room which was on the first floor, going down to the living room he encountered the other residents of the house, kids around his age, the oldest being a Charlie Bradbury, a Redhead orphan who was about 16 years old, she was also his room mate, and the youngest being young, John Snow, a four year old boy. There were 17 residents in total, excluding him, out of which 5 were the Laws, Judy, her husband Richard, their son Alex, and his wife Alex, and their son, grandson to Judy and Richard, Arthur who was 3 months old.

"Oh! Good morning Harry, how are you?" began Judy as soon as she saw him, she frowned slightly when she saw the empty plates in Harry's hands, she had hoped that they boy would eat with everyone, but she kept her patience because she knew that pushing him to do something he didn't want to would probably backfire horribly.

He gave her a short, yet curt, nod and when the others greeted him similarly, he nodded at them too, he went to the kitchen sink and started washing his cutlery, everyone in the house had a certain amount of chores to attend to, mainly cleaning their own rooms, everyone above the age of ten, which were only 5 children including him, were additionally responsible for taking care of their set of cutlery after eating and along with that they were assigned a child whose cutlery they had to care for, nothing else. Charlie and Alex, as they had demanded to be called, cooked the food everyday, since he traded in stocks he was a stay at home husband and father, his mother Judy was usually busy taking care of the children and so she had been made to retire from the more time consuming chores like cooking and laundry, his wife was busy taking care of their son, who being an infant was apparently quite time consuming, so he usually told her to refrain from doing any other chore, and his father while couldn't cook much and still occasionally went to look after his business, as a carpenter, had retired actively, and took care of any repair works needed at the house.

As soon as he was done washing and appropriately placing the cutlery he and went and sat at the sofa, placed in the living room patiently waiting for John, who was his charge, to finish his own breakfast, in the meanwhile he was planning how to deal with the stone, and weighing in the pros and cons of each plan he had come up with, 15 minutes later, John hollered, "I'm done!" and started waving his hands around wildly, Harry simply got up from where he was seated, went to the dining table and collected the cutlery of his charge in one neat pile, and then immediately picked up that said charge and set him on his left shoulder, where the boy promptly started to wiggle and squirm, picking up the cutlery in his right hand he took both to the sink, first he placed the items in the sink and turned on the tap to let the sink be filled with water, then he held down his charge in such a fashion that his face was directed towards the sink while his feet were still in air and let his face be drenched in water for a while, then he removed a handkerchief from his pocket and promptly cleaned off the boy's face. After which he let the toddler down so that he could he around while he washed the plates just like he had done this past week.

The other residents of the family were still baffled by the scene that had played out in front of them, and had been for the past week, except Judy and Richard, while the former had taken care of many children since the time she started fostering, she knew that children were more complex than they were usually given credit for, and that some children were for some reason that made no sense and tended to differ with child to child, were quite independent yet almost clung to children younger than them, while the latter who had more of a outdoor experience with people from many walks of life, chalked it up to effects of being placed responsible for someone younger, as it was an experience that was more unique than words could express.

After he was done with the cleaning, he turned towards the people who were still seated in the living room, giving the residents a nod Harry strode out of the room - and consequently the house - at a sedate pace, when he was far enough that he deemed no one would be looking at him from the house, as the house itself was on a farm on sussex, far enough from prying eyes and unwanted intruders to allow the children play out in the fields to their liking, yet close enough to be practical, he casted a _notice me not_ charm on himself, an extra precaution to avoid breaking the statue of secrecy, then finding an isolated place down the lane and _Teleported_ to Diagon alley.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _08:45 pm 18th June, Warrington, Manchester._

Harry was waiting near a warehouse to collect some goods he had ordered to be procured, the Knockturn alley as it turned out, was highly sophisticated, connected, and branched out, some of the things that he had needed fell out of the legal permissions of the law on their availability in the market, both muggle and magical respectively, while others were things he could buy only if he were an adult, so certain entrepreneurs at the alley set up some of their contacts to procure whatever he needed in exchange of some gold, which he had of course made out of the stone he had returned just today.

He had gone to Eeylops Owl Emporium, and bought a snowy Owl, the owl would be quite useful for picking up future items he couldn't pick up in person, for a multitude of reasons, since he had learned the address to the Flamels by their imprints in the stone, it was a simple matter of writing a note that simply stated that he had by accident came in possession of their stone and was returning it to them now, and all he requested is that they not divulge any information about him, especially his owl, to anybody, at all, as he knew they were connected to Dumbledore, and it would be better to not have to be scrutinized by the headmaster, he had of course taken extra precautions, he hadn't written the note by himself, he had simply paid someone in the Knockturn alley to write a vague note, in German, which would make sense only to those who had all the clues, the stone being the biggest one, and the fact that no one had been mentioned by their names to avoid any complication in the event of failure.

Waiting by the warehouse he soon heard some people coming by behind him, he turned to them and saw two men one was nearly 6ft tall while the other about 5ft 7in, in their early 40's with brown hair, and dressed in grey hoodies and faded out jeans, but most importantly were the two red monkey caps on their heads by which they were to be recognised, they called out, "you mr Freak Boy?"

He nodded, he knew that giving out his real name was not a good idea in illegal transactions, so he gave the only other names he knew that were his.

The taller one of the duo fished out a box from his jeans, he could feel the magic emanating from it and he knew that the box had been charmed with an undetectable extension charm, "here's the product, you got the cash?" he asked.

Harry simply removed the bag, again, charmed to be expanded, and showed it to them.

At this he continued, "Okay so, here's how we're going to do this, at the count of three you throw our bag at us while we throw your box at you, we verify the contents and then we scram, got it kid?"

Harry nodded again.

"One," he began

"Two,"

"Three," he finished and launched the box he held towards Harry, just as the bag of Gold had been launched at him and his partner, both the parties soon had what they needed, and the verified the contents quickly, without even looking at each other again they turned on spot and left for wherever it is they needed to be now.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _08:00 am, Hogwarts Headmaster's office._

"Ah, Severus come in," began Dumbledore as he watched the potions master enter his office, his deputy sitting in front of him, calmly sipping on her morning tea.

Taking his seat the potioneer began, "can we get to the reason for this urgent summons? I have a few brews that have i would prefer to attend unless circumstances dictate otherwise".

Without any preamble or tact, yet not unkindly he began, "has there been any increased activity in the mark?"

"No," was the short reply.

Just a month before the start of the last academic year Severus's mark had itched, once, and just a few days after that Quirinus had applied for the DADA position. Most people would have dismissed it as a coincidence, but they weren't most people, hence their current vigilance. And after the debacle with Tom, Quirinus, and the stone, he had told these two the whole story of what had transpired in the underground chambers as they were the only members of the Order on the Hogwarts staff.

"Very well, as usual stay alert and keep me updated," he didn't need to elaborate as he knew what they were talking about in whole. So he proceeded with the other subject for the day, "it seems a few days ago both of my former mentors received their lost possession, by an anonymous sender".

At this while Snape's face remained impassive, at least to those who didn't know him as well as these two did, Minerva's eyebrows rose high, "they didn't inform me anything more than what i have just informed you, as it happens there was precious little to go on, and what little they had, they are keeping it to themselves, apparently our anonymous helper wants to remain so"

At this both of them gave nods of understanding.

"While i don't know how useful it would be but i would appreciate it if you both kept an extra vigilant eye on the student body," he continued with a rare display of hesitancy.

While Snape nodded immediately, Minerva while hesitant like her friend gave her consent too, because she knew that while she hated this it could help to try and save her students from some of the worst possible mistakes the could make.

"Very well, that is all i would like to discuss for today, and i believe it is time for us to head towards breakfast," he gestured at the clock behind them mounted on the wall, which was displaying the time 08:33.

And so the proceeded to promptly exit.

 **A/n : That's it for today folks, and with this we draw a curtain on the first year.**

 **Next year has some surprises, and will take a quite darker turn.**

 **Till later.**


	9. Chapter 9 The modern Prometheus

_**Chapter 9**_

 _ **The modern Prometheus**_

 _11:15 am 1st September, Hogwarts express._

Harry was seated in a compartment on the express reading an ancient Sumerian book on the nature of soul.

There was a knock on the door of his compartment, and then the door was promptly opened to reveal two girls, a blonde with blue eyes, and a redheaded girl with brown eyes, who looked like first years, in a soft voice the redhead began "hello, my name is Ginny, Ginny Weasley and this is Luna Lovegood, the other carriages are full, may we sit here?"

Harry nodded at her once and they took seat across him, the blonde took out a magazine titled Quibbler and began reading it, while the redhead was reading the charms book, soon the train departed the station.

For a while, around half an hour, all were busy indulging in their respective activities, then all of a sudden Ginny spoke, "Those bloody idiots!"

At first Harry hadn't paid any attention to her words, but when he heard screams he couldn't ignore it anymore. He looked up from his book and saw that she and her friend were staring out of the train somewhere, he followed their line of sight and saw Weasley and Longbottom from his class, in a car, that was flying adjacent to the hogwarts express, he promptly sent a wave of his magic at the car, subtly of course, and when he found the magics applied on the car to be stable, though he couldn't understand some of it, chalking it off as family magic, he decided to carry out what he considered to be the best plan of action, and returned to reading his book, ignoring any further screaming coming from the girls or from further down the train which sounded very much like Granger and Bones.

He was reading a part of the book where it stated, that the general sumerian magics were more receptive to pain, especially pain of loss, he didn't understood what that meant, the last time he had felt any pain was when he conducted his _Fiendfyre_ experiment, that too for a short time, he hadn't felt any other overt pain since the time he was 7 and uncle Vernon had kept him in the tank of acid for a week, his body had adapted, the constant regeneration from the damage that acid had caused, resulted in an evolution in his regenerative abilities, his body learned to block pain, absolutely, the only reason the experiment had caused him any pain at all was because how the magic of his _Fiendfyre_ fought against his regenerational abilities to corrode it, to nullify it, though the prospect was quite hard for the inferno as it was trying to conquer that to which it owned it's existence, and eventually it failed in the task it had set itself upon, though the end result was what satisfied the young wizard for it not only increased his general magical power, but also further evolved his regeneration capabilities.

Snapping out of his thoughts he saw the blonde girl had went back to reading her magazine, while the redhead was again reading her charms book, so he to went back to reading his book.

It was almost night when they reached hogsmeade, and the girls went off their way to join the other first years following the groundskeeper and reaching the school via the lake route, he unlike them didn't go to meet up with his peers, instead simply preferring to teleport to the waiting chambers, from there he ran a detection sweep for the castle to search for three people One, Voldemort, which turned out to be negative, and Two, Headmaster Dumbledore, who was as it seemed coming down from his office with professor Snape, and three Professor Mcgonagall who apparently was just behind the chamber doors probably waiting for the first years to arrive, he quickly entered beyond the said door, closing it behind him, to approach his Head of the house who had her back turned towards the door, seeing this he bagned on the door once, loudly, with a start she whirled around and hissed "mr Potter what on earth are you doing here?"

He wrote to her, "i was looking for you professor, i wanted to inform you that i have arrived at the school but i have no intention of attending the opening feast, so i ask you to excuse my absence at it".

Her lips set in a thin line, and for a few moments Harry though that she wasn't going to permit him from evading the feast, then she took a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose and began, "honestly Potter! For the love of magic, first off don't sneak up on people, secondly, unless an emergency, don't come to the castle alone without your peers, and on that note how did you even manage to reach here so fast? to the best of my knowledge the Hogwarts Express arrived at Hogsmeade just a few minutes ago".

Minerva saw the expression on his face was the same blank mask that he always wore, and years of dealing with pranksters, including this young man's father, was giving her the feeling that her words were being heard but not heeded, and the only reason he was waiting so patiently here was because she hadn't given him what he wanted.

She heaved a great sigh and once again pinched the bridge of her nose, and then she began again, "Alright, Potter…. Harry, you may be excused from the welcome feast, but i want you to report to my office this sunday just after the breakfast, is that clear?"

Harry nodded once at her and gave a small curtsy, and promptly started to leave for wherever it was he was going, Minerva saw his disappearing back and sighed once again, this time quite softly, taking a deep breath she composed herself for the oncoming gaggle of first years.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _01:00 am 2nd September, underground hideout, Limerick, Ireland._

Harry calmly walked ahead in a barely lit corridor ignoring the dead bodies littered around, it was a gang of flesh traders, they called themselves Hoppers, made of Squibs, Muggles, and Magicals alike, they captured young muggle girls and put them under a variety of mind control magics then promptly sold them off to the highest bidders, the biggest problem in trying to capture this gang was that they left almost no trail behind, not to mention they never abducted girls from Ireland where they were based, and seldomly from rest of the UK, most of their abduction activities were carried out from cross continental areas like Detroit in America, Kashmir in India, and Pakistan occupied parts of it, Tibet, Afghanistan, Africa, and China, places where different kinds of factors often caused unrest and it wouldn't be uncommon for people, especially girls, to disappear under mysterious circumstances.

He too had come across information with regards them by an accident, while he was wiping out the _Yáolán_ , the Cradle, they called themselves, stealing children from all over the world to be supplied as future criminal recruits for Drug, and Terror, organisations across asia, sleeper cells, drug handlers, name it and they had it, they even occasionally provided certain children, to a very specific clientele, though they weren't specifically in the business of sex trade, because as they put it, just wasn't their area interest or expertise.

That was three days ago.

His clothes had been ruined today, he was going to require more sets of clothing if he was going to make a habit of being hit, a flame Blade hex, the _lann lasair_ hex, native to scotland, had hit him in the neck while he had been fighting the gang members, he had been practicing fighting without a wand ever since he had become a Shadow Hit Wizard as they were called, the legal term for government mercenaries, and today without a wand he had been too slow to cast any kind of shield just because he was fighting 10 on 1, the moment hex hit him half of his neck had been lacerated, his enemies had relaxed the moment they thought the fight to be over, he had used this belief of theirs to his advantage and threw out his own hexes without pause, catching them off guard while his body repaired itself, at a slow pace compared to before because the foreign magic of the hex - dark and full of malice - was impeding his usual speed, but had he not been who he was, he would have been dead, the wizard was strong enough to injure him despite the recent steps he had taken to make himself more magically resistant like magical creatures, though he had yet to achieve its full potential.

He reached the end of the corridor where there was a heavily fortified door, he thought but only for a second on how to deal with it, he summoned a blade that was lying behind among the dead bodies and sliced open his palms, and concentrated his magic around the wound in such a fashion that it wouldn't heal until he was done with it, and then quickly he drew a rune - the rune of fire in ancient hebrew - on the door, and placing his hands on the said rune he focused to use _Fiendfyre_ , blood being a highly magically conductive substance gave his spell just the right amount of boost to melt the door like an ice cube without the need of the corporeal flames usually produced by the curse.

Stepping in the room he found the secondary target of his exploration with the gang members being primary, their victims.

Women, girls, and some young boys, the former two in the age range of 5 - 35, while the latter from 5 - 10, all lying down on different cots, he ran a scan on them and found that they were all magicked to the point that they didn't had any consciousness of the environment, probably trained to respond to verbal commands, he tested out his theory by placing his hand on his neck and speaking, "Get up", his voice was an emulation he produced via magic, mainly to copy that of the gang members he had heard, and as he had suspected, all of them instantly rose from their cots in a standing position.

Deeming them all beyond recovery, he went ahead to deal with them like he had with the victims beyond recovery, from his raids of other organisations he had found, raising his hands and clapping them once above his head he sent an omnidirectional wave of flames.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _11:00 am 2nd September, Charms Corridor, Hogwarts._

Harry had just left from his first charms of the year, and just like last year he had started to proceed towards an empty corridor of the castle, but unlike before he simply intended to teleport from one end to the other, and just as he was about to he spotted the car Weasley and Longbottom and it was seemingly cruising around without anyone actually driving it, to be able to give an inanimate item like a car such sentience, it was life in a sense but only a parody, when the magics applied on the car ran out it would cease functioning, that is not he wanted for his goals, snapping out of his thoughts as he heard the other students making way near him, he teleported outside the room of requirements.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _01:09 pm 2nd September, The Great Hall, Hogwarts._

"What were you two idiots thinking!" hissed Hermione to her two male friends, who were seated in front of her, she hadn't been able to give them a piece of her mind yesterday or at the breakfast in the morning. "You could have Died! Or worse!..."

"Expelled!"chorused the Moronic Male Duo as Susan had dubbed them, interrupting Hermione, and the glare Hermione gave them made them belatedly realize the depth of the pit they had dug for themselves, and the fact that the brunette wasn't lecturing them anymore but had her lips set in a thin line, glaring at them, with her nostrils flaring, made it worse. Much worse.

Susan who had been seated next to Hermione was giving the two of them a deadpan expression which said, "you two idiots did this to yourself, expect no help from me". She looked around the great hall and noticed that nearly everyone was present there, of course except their enigmatic prodigy of a classmate, and she commented on the same, "huh, he's not going to make an appearance this year either is he?"

"What?" questioned Hermione, now distracted from the Moronic Male Duo.

"Harry Potter i mean, he hasn't been seen in the great hall since our sorting last year, he wasn't here last night or today morning either," she commented while looking around to see if he was seated at any other house's table like she was, though she doubted, the gossip would have been noticeable.

At this Ron blinked once and he too started looking around the hall, Hermione's right eye started to twitch furiously, and Neville had a mischievous look on his face, as if he knew something they didn't, though knowing him, Susan - rightly so - assumed he was mainly having a lot of fun with the whole situation, and she called him on it "Longbottom spill already!"

At this Ron looked between both of them with a look of confusion on his face, while Hermione's eyes narrowed towards the sandy haired blond.

"Okay, so remember when we were returning from the staff room after we were lectured for yesterday's….. Unforeseen incident?" he began to which he received three different reactions, Ronald winced, Susan snorted, and Hermione's nostrils flared again.

Picking up his pace to avoid another stare of death from the bushy haired witch he continued, "So when we left, i accidently forgot my remembrall," at this all three of his friends face palmed, he flushed a little at this but continued his tale, "I kind of went back to the staff room get it".

"You mean when you told me you needed to go to the bathroom?" Ron interrupted with a deadpan expression on his face.

"Err… yeah, kind of, any way so i overheard Mcgonagall," he began not wanting to go on the topic of his ever misplaced remembrall.

"Professor Mcgonagall!" Hermione interrupted correcting him.

"Yeah, so apparently he went to her to get excused from attending the feast yesterday," he continued.

"Wait when did he do that? I mean i never saw him even entering the castle let alone speaking to the professor," interrupted Susan, while both Ron and Hermione nodded to affirm this.

Neville sighed getting a little tired of being interrupted again and again, then continued "that's the kicker, he appeared in the castle a few minutes after the express arrived to Hogsmeade, without anyone".

"But how could he? Not to mention what Professor Mcgonagall did, that's favouritism, that's…." Hermione started ranting.

"Hermione shut up!" Neville interrupted her triade in an uncharacteristic display of steel in his voice which took back all three of his friends, especially the girls because he was usually quite hard to anger and always went with the flow.

"But Neville!" Hermione protested.

"No Hermione i won't budge on this, even if i could, i wouldn't," here he raised his hand to stop his friends from interrupting, and closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, then he looks Hermione in the eyes, and with an expression full of steel along with the voice, he continued "Hermione remember the Rain man movie, you had us watch? Remember how the protagonist in it was specially abled? Just like that our fellow Gryffindor is specially abled, yes his behaviour is abnormal and it does at times create problems for everyone, but that does not mean that you can be so rude about it, yes the teachers grant him a certain amount of leeway - yes way more than for any other student in most common circumstances - but they need to be made, from everything i have heard children as strong as him cannot control their strength consciously and to be able to do that they develop unique personalities, Hermione, i'll say this just once, don't push me on this".

Both Susan and Ron understood where Neville was coming from, but they felt sympathetic to their bushy haired friend too, who was looking like on the the verge of crying.

Hermione took a deep breath, and blinked away the tears that had been forming in her eyes, then she began, "I'm sorry, i guess i'm just a little not used to these things still".

Neville gave her a short nod and said "apology accepted in the spirit it was given".

Hermione understood that this simply meant that she was being excused but the offense still counted, then really carefully hoping that she didn't made the matters worse, but believing that the moment was opportune she began, "what did you meant by wouldn't even if you could?"

Neville released an explosive breath and closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them again his visage was somewhat back to his usual jovial mood, "his family and mine have been allied for centuries, we stand for and with each other, his mother was my godmother and mine his, in case you forgot or didn't know, they died together, they were at the potter's place when everything went down"

By the time Neville was done speaking his mood had grown sombre and they couldn't fault him for it, and now Hermione who was really contrite couldn't look her friend in the eyes and began again "I'm really sorry Neville…."

Neville again raised his hand to stop her and said "what's done is done, lets stop this here and now," and soon the bell indicating the end of the lunch break rang to which he started packing his things and said, "let's go or we'll be late for defense".

At this the other three were able to nothing more than helplessly nod and follow his lead, both Ron and Susan thankful for the bell interrupting the awkward situation.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _02:47 am 5th September, Room of Requirements, Hogwarts._

Harry was overlooking a few experiments he had conceptualized earlier in the summer, in front of him there were several large tanks, around 500, that looked like common pots found in any house holds kitchen, except they were bigger than most of the said houses, notably they were being heated by flames that originated from the base of each tank, and each one of these tanks held a crimson red liquid that was whirling at a high speed bubbling and frothing.

Harry had found that he could configure the room in such a manner that he could leave quite a lot of long term experiments to be completed, not to mention safe from being discovered even by accident, he simply had to set up a password, that he would present to the dor each time he entered, and every time he left his experiments would be stored in a pocket dimension of sorts, a simple yet difficult piece of magic that used the undetectable extension charm as the basis.

The simple parts were the mechanism of the charm itself, the difficult, storing his experiments in the said dimension without being influenced by the excess energy that was attached to the dimension charm, unused yet unavoidable.

He snapped out of his recollection as he encountered his current problem, by the means of all the notes he kept, his lack of information on dark magics, the information that he had received from the flamel' stone was in abundance, but they rarely were of subjects that could truly be called dark magics, so he would need to make some arrangements to close this hole in his knowledge, after all, magic was magic, and he didn't wanted his plans to meet ruins just because of lack of knowledge.

Plans would need to be made.

Arranging his notes back on how they were, he once again looked around the room to give his experiments a thorough inspection, aside from the tanks, there were multiple other potions currently being prepared in different cauldrons.

Satisfied with the results he sat down at the center of the room and began meditating, and his magic slowly started to visibly flare out and surround him like a Brown Mist , pulsing and moving in a very peculiar pattern. Static Magic, that's what he'd named it, he had observed the difference between Human magic and Animal Magic, he had observed how every magically strong animal was also resistant to it, to varying degrees of course, but resistant nonetheless, unlike humans who had little magical resistance, he had came to hypothesize that animals possessed a very Static form of magic which armed them with some generic, and some specific abilities, ranging from magical resistance as an example of the former, to the power to Kill with a stare, Be reborn after being killed, or control storms being a few examples of the latter. While he was sure he couldn't copy their species specific abilities without creating specific spells that emulated them, he was sure that he could make himself more resistant to magic by copying them, without needing to devise an actual spell to do so, the process was quite simple, he let his magic, human magic which he termed as dynamic magic envelop his body and reinforce it, like layers of steel sheets being bonded on wooden cabins to reinforce them, of course time, or sufficient pressure would wear even the steel down unless regularly renovated.

The difference was that while animals did it quite subconsciously and raised its abilities with age, humans couldn't, hence why he had started to consciously copy them and was determined to master this technique, to the point where he no longer needed any conscious effort to make his magic constantly reinforce his body. He had even started to develop physical enhancements such has increased strength, senses, and speed, though they weren't a particular priority.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _11:00 am 5th September, Minerva Mcgonagall's office, Hogwarts._

It had been some time since the breakfast had ended and as promised Harry had appeared outside his head of the house's office to meet her. She invited him in as soon as he knocked on her door as he was the the only person she had been anticipating today

As soon as he was seated she began, "So Harry, how was your vacation?"

He replied by writing as usual, but unlike other times his answer while still being monosyllabic - unless he felt the need to elaborate, which was rare - was not yes or no, "Productive."

Minerva blinked once, and then once again, that was new…., then shaking her head she began, "so Harry, do you like it? Living with the Law's i mean?"

"Yes," was his reply.

' _Ah, we're back to yes or no, well it was good while it lasted,'_ "I have been in touch with ms Lane and from what she tells me you are quite close to your charge young John".

Much to Minerva's surprise the boy didn't answer her question but returned a question of his own by tilting his head to indicate his confusion as he had before, as if asking her what she meant.

Taking a moment to gather her thoughts she began, "I meant you apparently usually put in more effort than what is expected of you to, and your charge too looks up to you"

Then he wrote to her, "did i do something wrong?"

Blinking once, Minerva replied, "no, not at all, i was just merely making an observation".

At that statement Harry simply stared at her for a minute and then nodded once, after that he wrote to her, "will that be all professor?"

Minerva stared at the new note given to her by her enigmatic student, his replies had already cut off any venues of discussion for her to pry in, and for a second she was wondering how on earth had this boy not ended up in Slytherin, then she remembered how he had dealt with the troll last year, not to mention that while any competent slytherin - mostly 7th years - could come up with a rudimentary plan to out trick her, none would actually have the courage to give it a go, mainly because the consequences of failing wouldn't be worth it, with a dry voice she said, "yes mr Potter you may leave".

As soon as Minerva was done speaking Harry got up and left at a pace that would have offended anyone else, Minerva on the other hand just sighed thinking, _'baby steps minne, baby steps'_.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _12:22 am 8th September, Top Cell, Nurmengard Castle, Austria._

It hadn't been a difficult job to sneak in here, the security had been lax, no one had thought anyone could breach the anti apparation and portkey wards, at least without alerting the security, he simply teleported to Grindelwald's cell, to get what he wanted.

The defeated dark lord was sitting in a corner of his cell, whistling to himself, dressed in ragged prison clothing, and the moment he spotted Harry materializing in the room, he gave him a small smile and said, "hmm i had been waiting for this, mr what is your name?"

Harry had heard that Grindelwald was a seer whose caliber was matched by few, so this was well within his calculations, the wizard was more experienced than him, and peerless in his knowledge of dark arts, especially from what he had seen in Flamel's memories of him, so he grabbed the man by the collar and brought his face close to his own, and peered in the man's eyes.

Most wouldn't even think that any twelve year old boy could possibly try to use Legilimency on the former Dark Lord to get a crash course of all the dark magic he had learned, but that was what exactly was going on here, and the whole process had lasted only a minute, when he was done he softly let the man go and let him get settled again in his cell, turning his back on the dark lord, something for which most, especially Alastor Moody, would call him a fool for he left back teleporting to Hogwarts.

But not before the man said something to him.

"Go my Modern Prometheus! Go!"

 **A/n : That's it for today folks, this was more or less a filler chapter though it had some key elements i intend to use in future, the title was in reference to both the Greek Mythological figure of Prometheus the god credited for the Creation of men, and granting them fire, again future reference to be explained in time, and the Frankenstein novel, which too will be explained in future.**

 **Thanks for reading, see you later.**

 **Till then ciao.**


	10. Chapter 10 Hades

_**Chapter 10**_

 _ **Burn!**_

 _08:55 pm 20th September, Minerva Mcgonagall's office, Hogwarts._

The scotswoman was going through the last bits of the assignment that she had asked her OWL students to turn in this week, just as she was done there was a knock on her door, she frowned as she hadn't been expecting anyone, all of her fellow teachers were busy and none of her students had requested to meet her, she hoped this wasn't an emergency situation especially given the ominous warning that house elf gave to Longbottom, anyhow she opened the door only to find their school's latest defense teacher, however loosely she may use the term in this case, "How may i help you Professor Lockhart?"

Giving the head of the lions one of his charming smiles he began, "ah Professor Mcgonagall, you see it seems that one of your lions, mr Potter to be specific, has not appeared even for a single class of mine till now! Is everything alright with him? I mean a great wizard like him does deserve to be taught by someone of my calibre, is he feeling too shy to attend my classes? He doesn't need to be afraid of disappointing me, i'll teach him all i know!"

Minerva stared at the man for a minute and then she began, "thank you for bringing your concerns to me Professor, i'll talk to mr Potter with regards to this, though i may warn you to not expect much, he does what he wants and given his peculiarities some allowances need to be made for him, i hope you understand what i mean," she finished by adjusting her glasses by the nose bridge to make her appear more serious, a trick that worked on almost everyone.

"Ofcourse, ofcourse, i know that, hence why i am here to talk to you," answered Lockhart.

"If that'll be all Professor Lockhart, i have OWL assignments to check" said Mcgonagall, wanting the conversation to end.

Fortunately Lockhart, though oblivious to her dislike of him, was of similar mind, "Ofcourse, have a good night Professor!"

Mcgonagall went back in her office as soon as he turned his back on her and shut its door, tight, heaving a sigh she sat back at her desk, the quality of the defense teachers had been falling over the years, but this…..was just sad. She had heard about his disaster of a lesson with the cornish pixies, and not only she understood Potter's possible reasoning for not attending a single one of hs classes but actually condoned it, and would support her lions should they petition to her to be excused from this joke of a teacher, come hell or high water.

Waving her wand she arranged the papers on her desk tidying up her work place she went to sleep, all the stress called for an early night in.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _03:48 pm 2nd October, Random Building, Vancouver, Canada._

Debris turned into spears as they were banished in the direction they came from, Harry strode down the hallway of the building he was in at the moment, his face was hidden by a improvised hood and an _obscurus_ charm tied in it to prevent any unforeseen accidents. Poseidon, a fellow mercenary had given him the advice to hide his face, which was logical choice especially in the case he was on a mission and there were some people he spared or failed to kill, while neither of those scenarios had occurred till now, it was logical to take precautions, his a broad overview of his job was to eliminate any targets that they were assigned, the in depth guidelines of the hit wizards stated that only killers and those who voluntarily committed heinous acts were their targets, others were to be apprehended and delivered to the local authorities.

She had also told him to get an alias to go by - other than Freak Boy that is - because one, It didn't made any sense, two it was better to have an alias that corresponded to one's abilities as it made introductions easier, she used her alias as an example, Poseidon the Greek God of water, as she was the best Hit Wizard - or witch in her case - when it came to water manipulation.

He was brought back from his ruminations by the sound of footsteps coming from further down the hall, he had work to do.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _02:15 pm 12th October, Charms Corridor, Hogwarts._

"You filthy half blood! Stop hanging around Greengrass," shouted Draco Malfoy surrounded by his entourage.

Tracey Davies who had been listening to the blond rant as usual was starting to get frustrated, but she didn't want to create any problems for her father by getting into problems with this idiot - and consequently his father - got angry and at the top of her lungs shouted back, "how dare you inbred French reject piece of shite try to tell me to stay away from my bestfriend!"

Draco started to go red in face and he removed his wand from his robe pockets and said, "Crabbe, Goyle, hold her down, let's teach her how to talk to her betters!"

But before anyone of the trio could do anything someone interrupted from behind the trio, "that would be a really bad idea Malfoy".

The trio turned to look and saw The-Boy-Who-Didn't-Die as his father called him staring at him, and his lackeys trailing not far behind him.

"You!" began Malfoy as soon as he saw them but was yet again interrupted by Neville.

"Yes, me, this is getting old now Malfoy, get going, no one here wants trouble, and think twice before opening your mouth, if anything happens it'll go to Dumbledore and whose word do you think he'll believe, yours or mine?" warned Neville.

No one thought it was possible but Malfoy's face went even more red, and he was shaking, then he ground out, "Longbottom you'll get yours one day! Just wait for it, Dumbledore can't protect you forever," then Malfoy left with his sidekicks following him.

Neville released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding in, at that moment his friends also caught up to him, and then he saw that Davies was staring at him, "what?"

Tracey blinked, once, and then again, then she pointed her index finger at herself as if to ask "me?""

Neville gave her a deadpan expression.

Tracey blinked a few times again and then said, "just never thought The-Boy-Who-Lived, Dumbledore's Golden Gryffindor boy would ever help a Slytherin in trouble".

Much to everyone's surprise it was Ron who answered Tracey, but what was surprising was not the fact that he answered her back, but how he did it, "why? wouldn't it be the Noble and Courageous thing to do? The Gryffindor thing to do?"

Everyone now stared at him.

Ron went as red as his hair and started to rub his hand at the back of his neck, "what? It's not right for anyone to be treated the wrong way for something as stupid as blood status, and though i still don't trust Slytherins, i hate Malfoy, So if something makes his life harder, I'm all for it".

Tracey gave him a small smile and said, "Yep, if it makes that blond twit's life harder I'm all for it too".

All of a sudden Hermione said, "guys all this is heart touching, but we'll be late for class if we don't get moving right now!"

And in a mutual moment of panic the five started to run.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _09:35 pm 17th October, Amelia Bones' office, Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE), British MInistry of Magic._

Amelia was bent down on her table intent on completing her this week's paperwork so that she could get a day off tomorrow, oh how she hated being bound to the desk and not being on the field. All of a sudden there was a knock on her office doors, she frowned wondering who it could be this late, nevertheless she called out, "come in".

Kingsley Shacklebolt one of the more seasoned aurors of the department glided in her office, closing the door behind him, she felt the privacy wards that had ceased functioning when Shacklebolt opened the door snap back in place, it paid to have permanent privacy wards installed in her office, after all you never know who could be listening.

"Good evening Madam Bones," he greeted her with a nod.

"Good evening to you too, and it's Amelia to you King," she replied with a exparsated shake of her head, she gestured at the seat in front of her knowing that he will not take a seat unless indicated to.

Giving his senior and friend a small smile, he sat opposite her and then all of a sudden all humor disappeared from his face and his expression went blank, something that raised all sorts of alarms in Amelia's brain.

Without any preamble Kingley began, "I've come across some troubling information, it's about the Shadow Hit WIzards".

Now that was a topic they didn't discuss everyday, those from the said division were affiliated to the national authorities only loosely and mainly answered to the ICW, they were an experiment only active in some countries, at the time of You-Know-Who's reign of terror they were newly formed and didn't have sufficient manpower or efficiency of any form to help britain out, not to mention their methods were very brutal, and whatever Kingsley had to say about them couldn't be good. She bowed her head slightly to prompt him further.

"They have a new combat operative, and its someone from here," he continued.

Amelia's face remained neutral, though the fact that they had a new operative was a rarity on its own, the fact that it was from britain was rarer, with this new character there were now a total of 5 british operatives in the program. People who could have become useful aurors if they could rein in their attitudes, most of the combat operatives that joined the Shadow Hit Wizard operation were usually people who were either vigilantes who believed that they would deliver judgement on the wicked or those who were there to hone their skills and weren't shy to get blood on their hands.

"And it seems that it's someone really powerful, probably Dumbledore, and You-Know-Who kind of powerful," explained Kingsley while Amelia could make out the unsaid, _'probably as ruthless as the latter'_.

Amelia's eyebrows furrowed in a frown, someone that powerful would have without a doubt left a mark during the Wizarding blood war, so either it was someone young enough to have not been a participant during the war or was someone who either came back from wherever they were during that time or were working using a false identity, neither of these scenarios was appealing, it raised many questions and quite a lot of them disturbing.

"It seems this new operative was the one who dealt with Hoppers, a total of 165 killed by this one operative in a matter of hours," added Kingsley with a grim expression.

Amelia blinked, _'now that's just bloody great! A possible sociopath who is making You-Know-who look like an amateur'_.

"Now I wouldn't go that far," said Kingsley in an amused tone.

It took Amelia a second to realize that she had said it out aloud, she released a soft breath and then said, "I'm so damn tired that i'm starting to go bonkers, maybe it's old age catching up, time for me to retire already".

Kingsley chuckled a little and questioned, "would you say that in front of Mad Eye?"

Amelia gave him a deadpan look that screamed, "HELL NO!"

Sighing Kingsley once again began, "If i stumble across anymore info I'll let you know, till then remember to call me if you need anything".

Amelia gave him a nod - because really, there was nothing they could say without any more information - and then said, "well if you're that willing to help me out some sandwiches would be helpful".

Kingsley snorted and then said, "I'll do you a better one, chinese takeout from the restaurant at 13th".

Amelia gave him a soft smile as she said, "You're a lifesaver King!"

The dark skinned man's laughter echoed in the room as he left to get the supplies.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _11:03 am 18th October, Black Lake, Hogwarts._

"Good Morning Heir Longbottom, Heiress Bones, Scion Weasley, Granger," greeted Daphne as soon as they arrived, her blonde hair shining in the sunlight.

Hermione's eyebrows twitched at the way she greeted them, but to her credit she didn't fuss about it, something that didn't go unnoticed by her friends.

Tracey who was standing next to Daphne sighed softly in exparsation at her friend's habits.

Neville gave both a small smile and returned the blonde's greeting, "Good morning Heir Greengrass, Tracey".

Daphne raised an eyebrow at the informal manner Neville referred to Tracey but said nothing, and then she began after taking a moment to presumably gather her thoughts, "i would like to thank you for helping Tracey out with Malfoy a few days ago, it could have gotten ugly really fast and you stepped in when you had no obligation to, should you every need help - anyone, including your friends - and there is something that i can do, don't hesitate to ask me for it, as far as my abilities as heiress Greengrass let me".

"Thank you, but you don't need to worry about it so much, she was in trouble and we helped her out, that's it, no big deal, and i believe i speak for all of us but you don't need to feel obligated to return the favour, it's just a school yard squabble," said Susan, and her friends nodded to express their agreement with her.

Daphne's eyebrow twitched but before she could say anything Tracey interrupted her by saying, "Guys don't mind her she's paranoid cyanic, she expects the worst of almost everyone, and thinks that the only reason someone does anything is for others is for their own hidden agendas".

The blonde shot her friend a betrayed look which was promptly ignored.

"That's alright if the Optimists gave us brooms, the Pessimists gave us gave us cushioning charms, they're a lifesaver alright," said Ron, surprising everyone, and while the girls were staring at the ginger boy, Neville gave a snort and wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulder.

"Damn Ron, that's the second time this week! You got anymore surprises?" queried Neville, half amused and half genuinely glad that his friend had been learning to think before speaking.

At this the ginger blushed and then said, "well we hang out with Hermione, you can't not learn anything when you're always around her.."

Now it was the bushy haired witch who went red, while their mutual male friend grinned like a cheshire cat, and Susan subtly stole glances at both Ron and Hermione.

Both the Slytherins too were amused by the antics of the quartet.

"And honestly she's a little barmy about learning, i mean if we let her be she'll house in the library for the rest of her life!" continued Ron.

' _Normal service resumed,'_ thought Neville as Hermione's lips thinned and nostrils started to flare and Susan facepalmed, Hard, while Trace was gaping at the ginger boy digging his own grave, Daphne had a slight expression of amusement that most would have missed, and he too caught only because of years of trying to read people to know what they wanted from The-Boy-Who-Lived. _'Oh well as they say baby steps and all that'._

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _12:19 am 19th October, Gryffindor 1st year Girls Dormitory, Hogwarts._

"I don't know what to do right now, i mean i've liked Neville since i was a child but he doesn't see me that way, he sees me like his friend's little sister, what do you think i should do now Tom?" Ginny wrote to her new _friend_.

"Hmm, i would say give it some time, he'll see you for the amazing person you are soon enough, get better at magic, and that is something that i can help you out with," replied Tom.

"Will that really help?" she asked not understanding how the two things were related.

"Of course it will, from what you tell me Neville sounds like someone who is a warrior, and wouldn't stand down against any kind of injustice," he replied.

"Yeah, he is, the future successor of Dumbledore the greatest wizard to ever live!" exclaimed Ginny.

"Ofcourse he is, now taking all that into consideration he would want a partner who could stand by his side and that is something you can do that only if you're magically strong," explained Tom.

"Ofcourse! But what should i do to get stronger?" she questioned back, she knew that it wasn't all that easy to get strong enough to fight, Personally the strongest wizard she knew was Bill, her oldest brother who was powerful and talented enough to be scouted by Gringotts soon after he left Hogwarts.

"Leave that up to me, now what were you telling me about this enigmatic prodigy?" he answered.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _06:15 am 31st October, Near Mekong River Delta, Vietnam._

A group of 7 people watched with a sense of horrified awe as their 8th partner, a child really, killed people in droves, a sabertooth tiger made out of fire next to him, covering his back, while he turned their enemies in Inferius. They had known who the boy was from the beginning, an upstart rookie Shadow Hit Wizard who had completed 78 missions within 4 months, out of which 25 were D ranked, 20 C ranked, 23 B Ranked, 8 A ranked, and 2 S ranked, the man who had been leading this team thought back to the events that led them to this exact moment.

Their ongoing was an S ranked mission not only because it was difficult but because the secrecy they had to maintain, their target was a man who went by the moniker Thanatos, a necromancer so ruthless and unstable, that even Gellert Grindelwald one of the most dangerous Dark Lords of the millenium refused to partner up with him, and if it weren't for the fact that Grindelwald was quite stronger than Thanatos, the Necromancer would have tried to kill the Dark Lord.

His dream was to turn the whole world into that of the undead, including himself if some sources were to be believed, a group made up of like minded individuals, including quite a lot of muggles, threatening not only the safety of the world but also putting the statue of secrecy at grave risk, hence why when they received intelligence about him shifting his base of operations to a new location, one which was vulnerable at the moment, the high ups at the ICW responsible for the Shadow Hit Wizard initiative (S. H. W. Initiative) decided to send 5 of their most experienced and powerful comat operatives, along with the infamous rookie and two muggle combatants who were in the know with the statue of secrecy to deal with this problem.

It was a simple mission, - even if quite suicidal - break into enemy stronghold, kill Thanatos, and his four Apprentices/Generals and get the hell out of dodge after planting - more or less simply throwing it as soon as the second objective was clear - a modified thermo bomb meant to evaporate everything within a 2 kilometer radius.

Since the mission had been set up on the fly they didn't have a lot of time to strategize, the Six Magical combatants were two men named Lone Wolf, and Baba Yaga, the former wore gray overalls and a Wolf mask, hence his name, while the latter wore a black russian combat outfit with a red mask, and a fox pelt attached to the back of his back, both men had holes in their masks to see, and three women known as Shadow, Poseidon, and Izanami, the first wore an all black, skin fitting suit complete with mask but no visible holes for eyes, the second wore ocean blue overalls with a sea green mask that had a spiral pattern with eye holes, the last wore a white Japanese kimono along with a kabuki mask. The last member of the magical combatants, a boy coincidentally - perhaps not - named Freak Boy wore black overalls and a hoodie with an obscurus charm to protect his identity.

The two muggle operatives on the other hand, dressed in dark blue & gray camo army outfit full with a mask which had a single long slit for eyes was one by the name Brain Splatter because of his ability and habit of making headshots his weapons were two pistols and one automatic rifle, while his partner a woman who went by the name Mysterious Magenta dressed similar to the former except her dress for colored green and gray, her name came from her eyes which were magenta colored, her weapons were 2 pistols just like Brain Splatter with a semi-automatic Sniper Rifle.

They were outnumbered by 25 to 1, when Lone Wolf who had been appointed the leader for this mission asked for input from his fellow combatants, their available resources were : A rough map of the enemy base, A magically reinforced and upgraded SUV which was at this very moment headed towards the enemy base, a huge batch of support type potions, and magical upradges applied to the two non magical combatants, such as a _Geminio_ charm applied to their gun's magazine to ensure they never run out of ammunition.

It had been barely half an hour since they had received the confirmed intelligence and given that the assassination specialist of the ICW was down with Dragon Pox they were forced to take a heavy handed method or risk their target becoming aware.

Freak Boy put forth a simple plan, enter through the front door where no one would expect them, make a blitzkrieg with the best of their respective abilities and then escape, the plan hadn't gone all that well with every one, Magenta, Poseidon, and Shadow, were in agreement with it simply given they had a similar line of thought given their current situation, Izanami, Baba Yaga, and Brain Splatter weren't in agreement because while they didn't have a problem with the fact that what they were doing would most likely go quite bad, quite fast, they wanted to complete the mission, their pride of never having failed any mission was on line - and in the case of Baba Yaga,who was a necromancer himself understood the gravity of what Thanatos wanted to achieve, and the threat he posed to humanity and was determined to stop him at any cost - though they too didn't have any other plan they could come up with at such a short period of notice.

Lone Wolf was unable to make a decision because he understood and agreed with the points being made by both sides so he asked, "Freak Boy, do you have any contingency plan or any backup that could be used in the event we fail to achieve one of our objectives?"

As it turned out there were actually additional steps he intended to take to ensure their missions success, just didn't share it because no one asked.

When they were 25 minutes/1.5 KM away from their destination - a nondescript 8 story building spanning over 18 sq meter, with a concrete boundary wall 250 meters away from the building itself , approaching from eastwards, intending to change their route to the front in the last 300 meters, everyone except Magenta got off the car and started to proceed on foot, while she was waiting in the car for their signal to reach them as fast as they could, afterall it was common sense that a car could be detected far easily when compared to people, and if they were caught unaware they would become target practice, car reinforced or not.

Soon they encountered their first obstacle, an alert ward, quite a basic security measure but would have definitely worked had it not been for the fact that Shadow - who had taken the lead for now - had been literally casting three different detection charms with every step she took, and they were still a whole KiloMeter away from the base.

Taking down an alert ward was a job of delicacy and took around 15 to 20 minutes, and that was for someone as skilled as Shadow who was the stealth expert for the S.H.W, when she was about to begin dismantling the ward Freak Boy went to her and held her hand, and started shaking his head to tell her to stop,when she did as he asked, he removed his own wand and pointing it towards where the ward was started to wave it up and down repeatedly, no one could make sense of what he was doing but before they could question it he turned his wand towards them and shot out a golden webbing that attached to them and the next thing they knew was that they were standing at a different spot, it was quite a bit away from where they were earlier around a 115 meters, and Shadow turned back, the rest of them with her, and again began running diagnostics much to their surprise the alert ward was still there and they had crossed it without triggering it when they turned forward again the rookie was missing.

They waited for a few seconds, unsure of what to make of the boy's absence, the next thing they knew was that an SUV appeared out of thin air, it took them a second to recognize that it was their SUV and both Magenta and Freak Boy were seated inside, then again before they realized they were displaced from where they were standing to being seated inside the car, though they were not a little distressed by these events it was only years of practice that stopped them from reacting overtly, while the one causing wrote to the driver of their car, "Drive forward till i signal you to stop".

Without questioning, Magenta began doing just that, soon when they were about 520 meters away from the base she was given the signal to stop, and immediately once again Freak Boy disappeared, only to reappear 19 meters away from their car, crouched with his wand in his hand touching the ground.

The whole group watched him patiently, they had learned one thing about the boy, he wasn't a team player.

10 minutes passed.

And then 25 passed.

But when it reached the 35 mark the crouched boy stood up all of a sudden and holsted his wand above his head and with a deafening bang and blinding light a dome formed around the enemy base, and they came to realize this was the _Hades Realm_ , the contingency he had informed them about, a ward made by him to keep things inside rather than out, and everything that tried to get past it would be turned to ashes.

The enemies were no doubt alert now, and once again the boy was back in the car immediately, and instructed Magenta to drive, which she eagerly followed the car was now moving towards its destination at full speed and all of a sudden the point at which they were supposed to turn towards the main gate they found their car beyond the said gate going without pause, before they knew it they were in the centre of the enemy base, and about to become victims of the said enemy's highly frenzied yet all the same deadly spell fire, and the next thing they knew was that Freak Boy was on top of the bonnet of the car with his wand stretched out and a golden shield, which the Magicals recognized as an _Aegis Shield_ , snapped up and protected them from every attack coming in their direction.

Not ones to let someone else fight for them or waste a good opportunity they got out of the car and started to fight back, Lone Wolf and Shadow used basic destructive spells like Reducto, and Bombarda along others, while both Magenta and Brain Splatter and Magenta started to use their more heavy weapons to provide fast and accurate support to their comrades who needed time to use their more powerful attacks, while Freak Boy was maintaining their defense.

Baba Yaga was the first to finish his spell as indicated by his grunt of _Piertotum Locomotor_ and five semi-humanoid creatures made out of stone and earth rose and out of them three started to charge towards the enemy decimating many of them, while the other two stayed back and flanked the eight man team, then Posiedon went next waving her wand in a dramatic arch of her wand she shouted in a smooth voice, _Tidal Terror!_ and a torrent of water poured forth her wand engulfing everything the golems missed, and following her lead Izanami too waved her wand in a similar fashion, and then whispered _Raijin_ and electricity buzzed from the tip of her wand using the water provided by Poseidon to full advantage and instantly electrocuting those who had escaped the golems and the tide.

Freak Boy dropped his shield and rushed ahead of the rest of them coming to a halt just 5 meters away from them and then he held his wand aloft after which a humongous inferno spewed forth from his wand, the sheer rise in temperature told the rest of them that this wasn't some simple fire charm, and if their guess was correct the boy was using _Fiendfyre_ , and that had Lone Wolf, Brain Splatter, and Poseidon cursing right and left, Lone Wolf thought that the boy had bitten more than he could chew with this curse as the flames weren't taking a solid form as they were supposed to but were simply rampaging, Brain Splatter had similar thoughts and it brought back some trauma as he had once seen this spell in action and that hadn't been a good day for him, lost most of his previous team to it, while Poseidon was stressed because she couldn't use her trademark water based spells while the _Fiendfyre_ was present, as it was it had already evaporated her previously conjured water.

It had been 3 minutes since the inferno had started wreaking havoc and when they saw the trail of destruction left behind they came to the realization that the spell wasn't out of control, rather Freak Boy had simply chosen to use the cursed fire in a more flexible manner rather instead of the traditional beastly form, this way he did more damage and faster, soon the spectacle ended and there was nothing left but destruction and the inferno, oddly enough the building itself that was their prime target remained untouched.

Then leaving the cursed fire be, he started waving his wand in seemingly utterly random manner, it would have looked like a child who was playing with a stick rather than a powerful wizard casting magic had it not been for the fact that the wand had been constantly emitting an orange vibe that was moving in a manner similar to sonar.

Turning towards them Freak Boy signalled them to follow him and started marching towards the entrance of the building, though he also flickered his wand once behind him just as he started his march, and the flames condensed into a beast, a Sabertooth Tiger to be more precise, the beast was humongous but what caught the eye of the mercenaries was the sheer amount of detail in the flaming feline, they could make out muscles and individual teeth of the tiger, a feet that spoke of the boy's control on the spell, it promptly started to follow its creator, soon after they entered the building and in the hallway they encountered two of Thanatos' Lieutenants Charon and Azrael along them were some 30 - 40 people behind them but before anyone could do anything tendrils shot out of the flaming feline and made short work of most of them, the rest were turned into Inferi courtesy of Freak Boy, and were prompt;ly set on the task to seek others.

while this was grim enough on its own, the small band of mercenaries barely gave it a thought at the moment because, really, they were here to kill them, the methods meant little, and it wasn't like Freak Boy would be the first necromancer in their ranks, and while Baba Yaga was the theoretical expert at the art he wasn't the only one, just the best.

The team decided to take a ten second break to gather up their breaths and wits, Baba Yaga's remaining two golems still flanking them, even Freak Boy and his flaming feline waited for them, and then set forward, what they saw when they set out at first baffled them because the hallways and the rest of the building was empty, at the moment they were on the third floor and they hadn't encountered a single soul, that bafflement turned to horror when they reached the fourth floor because they once again witnessed the destruction brought forth by the Inferi they came to another realization, the number of Inferi had Doubled, at least, and slowly Brain Splatter commented, "Guys that's not supposed to happen right?"

Baba Yaga gave a stiff and small nod and turned to Freakboy whose obscurus charm was doing it's job of not revealing his face at all, not the best thing given the circumstances, but anything they could have said was cut off by a chilling laughter, the kind that struck fear in the hearts of most battle tested veterans, these being no exception aside of the one who was ironically the most inexperienced.

And the group saw ahead, around some 139 meters away from them, to look that a lone man was surrounded by the Inferius, he was not a man of great stature, he looked just like any average man they could find on the streets wearing rimless glasses, but it took no time to recognize the man as Thanatos, their main objective of this mission. He didn't looked scared at all, if anything he looked quite ecstatic as if he wasn't surrounded by a large number of Inferius that could tear him apart within a few moments, then again this was a psychopath who wanted to become an undead himself so that shouldn't be all that much surprising.

And then he spoke, oh he spoke, usually novels give these kind of people a high pitched voice or a gravelly one because they are fiction and want to make their characters sound dangerous, nut this, this was real life and the man who was in front of them had a voice that was anything but a prime example of a normal - if somewhat sweet and melodious - voice, and to someone like them it was something that set them on edge, "Oh young, boy what is your name? Oh my saviour, oh the destined one, make me too into one of your masterpieces so that we shall as once bow before lady death, free from the restraints of this tedious life!"

Looking back to this moment in future they would find it really anti climatic, but while the 7 experienced fighters were waiting for the things to go lopsided and the crazed necromancer looked like he was about to launch into a monologue, the youngest member of the group launched what appeared to be a small ball of light and heat in a howitzer trajectory, hitting its target with a dead on trajectory, at first they weren't able to witness what the spell did because the moment it made contact with the madman because they found themselves back in their car, which was now apparently now standing nearly half a kilometer away from the boundary wall of the base but within moments it became clear as to why it would have been a really bad idea to stay where they were as the whole compound was swallowed by what looked like a miniature sun and they could do nothing as they saw it expand and devour everything with greed and gluttony, and it kept expanding steadily reaching to them, as they realized that they had been too transfixed by the sight in front of them, they snapped out of it and made preparations to get out of the path of this thing, but when they saw the non-reactions of the person responsible for all of this they put stop to it simply observing the humongous ball of fire.

The heat was scorching as the ball was now just a literal meter away from their car, but in a literal blink of an eye the ball disappeared as if it was never there taking the base and most of the evidence of the events that transpired today.

Magenta took the end of the lightshow and the absence of the base, thus clearing their third objective as her cue to start the car and get the hell out of dodge.

A/n : that's it for today folks! I would like to heartily apologize to any and all readers for my abrupt absence, due to Ramzan between work, fasting and prayers never got a chance to write, so now as soon it was possible for me, this was more or less a filler chapter. Now onto some notes For shadow and Freak Boy imagine the Venom-suit being worn by Tobey Maguire in the 3rd spidey film except completely pitch black and being worn by a woman in Shadow's case and having a hoodie in Freak Boy's case, i'll try to get other chapters up asap, i have the frame ready, now all that's left is to get it down on paper..


	11. Chapter 11 Cling

_**Chapter 11**_

 _ **Cling.**_

 _11:27 am 2nd November, ?_

In a nondescript room which only held one overhead light a steel table and 9 chairs for the people gathered in it a very important discussion was underway, the topic being the youngest combat operative of the Shadow Hit Wizard Initiative who went by the moniker Freak Boy, at least for now as far as Poseidon was determined.

"Gentlemen and Ladies, thankyou for the mission reports you turned in yesterday, they were highly informative, and contributed many pieces of import, but let us not beat around the bush and get to the matter, how was Freak Boy's performance on the mission?" said a man who was well in his 50's, dressed in grey formals, hair white from his years of experience yet his posture was straight, it spoke of authority and confidence.

Lone Wolf took a look around his companions who had accompanied him to the previous mission and taking their non-participation as consent began, "Director Hennessey, as stated in reports yesterday, agent Freak Boy has terrible teamwork, he lacks coordination that comes not only from his inexperience, but also from what it seems to be serious psychological issues, mostly issues in his affect paired with low to non existent common sense, on multiple occasions he took actions on the council of none besides himself, putting both the team and mission in jeopardy, though his skills more than made up for it, his combat prowess are a deadly combination of swift, unconventional, and above all overwhelming, overall he could be improved dramatically if someone were to guide him properly".

The now identified Director Hennessey took a few moments to process what his agent said and then closing his eyes let out a small sigh, "this has become far more complicated than i hoped it would, but thankfully not more than i had expected it to, I would like to have more opinions before making a final decision, so please if you have anything to say make yourself home".

Poseidon spoke up, "Director what exactly do you plan to do with him? He isn't an unstable agent who might turn rogue, and I doubt that any of us exactly have stones to throw at him when it comes to psychological issues, and though i admit his issues impact the missions, he could be trained as wolfy said".

Said wolfy turned to look in her direction, with what was probably a glare from under his mask though was ignored.

"Poseidon, the question you pose is exactly the one going in my mind, normally yes training could help but in this case there are many unknown variables here, that close our other avenues too, along with the preferred one, and the consequences of mishandling the situation would be quite dire to say the least," said the aged man.

A brunette who had been taking notes next to him furrowed her eyebrows at that and questioned what he meant by that.

With a mild smile on his face he answered, "Spectre my dear student, you still have a lot to learn, under normal circumstances, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, but still to humor the possibility if our youngest combatant didn't have his psychological issues and we faced similar problems with him, I would have asked him to leave because it would be possible to a degree and take proper preemptive measures to counter the fallout".

Spectre nodded to this and Hennessey could see others were listening to what he was saying.

"But this situation gets all the more complicated with the issues that are present, he is unpredictable, best case scenario i tell him to leave and he leaves with the standard procedure of signing the non disclosure and emergency force contracts, a good one he leaves but doesn't sign the contacts yet remains an honorary member, a neutral one he leaves and suspends any form of communication, bad he kills me and those with me the moment I present the idea to him, worse he becomes the kind of threat we were made to fight against and we fail to stop him" he continued grimly.

Everyone in the room was looking at him with horror as comprehension and gravity of his words dawned on them.

Nodding in satisfaction he continued, "and those are just the major outcomes, of one of the major options I can think of at the moment, the others being to kill him, to train him, or lastly to isolate him and let him remain on solo missions".

Slowly Brain Splatter spoke up, "you can't kill him because not only would you be wasting what could be used as a potential trump card, but all the people that will go down trying to kill him because I doubt we'll be lucky enough to simply assassinate him, best chance is to ambush him with numbers and hope one person manages to hit him, if that fails he will without a doubt destroy everyone and everything within his sights, training is a wild card, too many factors too many things could go wrong, while leaving him alone leaves him as a ticking bomb".

Hennessey gave a nod of acknowledgment and began again, "an apt summary Brain Splatter, of course real life is far more complicated and even the best of the plans rarely survive contact with reality, I suppose, well all accounted for this wasn't a bad discussion and i'd like to say thank you for your time today i'll let you know if something comes up and …..".

And before he could have said anything further Poseidon spoke up with all of her gusto, "Oh! Oh! Director, I was thinking we should rename Freak Boy to, get this, Frank, hah! Awesome isn't it ? I mean come on he's always too frank, if you get what i mean," and then she started to laugh at her own joke.

"More like Frankenstein the monster who creates other monsters," Brain Splatter muttered.

And before it could go any further Hennessey gave a small chuckle and said, "Yes, yes, your suggestions have been noted Poseidon, and yours too Brain Splatter, like i said enough for today, and I hope we have good fortunes ahead of us after all our motto is _Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat_ ".

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _07:22 am 6th November, Great Hall Hogwarts._

The hogwarts rumor mill was working overtime to discuss the petrification of the infamous mrs Norris, no one except Filch was upset about it but everyone was wondering who could have done it as petrification, even of an animal, was not exactly an easy feat.

A red headed girl was also thinking along the same lines and was asking her friend about his thoughts on the matter, except her friend wasn't exactly human, her diary Tom was now a days her most trusted confident as of late, he would hear out her troubles and advise her on what to do, just like now.

"Hey Tom, who do you think could have petrified mrs Norris? Do you think they could harm me or my friends?" wrote Ginny in the best handwriting she could manage.

"It has to be someone in the 7th year, at least, petrification as you know is not easy to perform though there are some spells to do so they're easier to perform on beasts when compared to humans because of our magical resistance, now though there isn't any way to counter the petrification aside from mandrake draught which we can't brew, not to mention the school intends to do it so we don't need to, but if it makes you feel safe there are a few spells that you can learn to use to keep yourself and others safe," came the reply from the diary in a smoot cursive font.

"Really?" she wrote back, she had been excited at the prospect of getting stronger ever since Tom advised her on how she could get Nevile's attention.

"Of course, why would I lie to you? Now follow my instructions as soon as we're at our usual place the first spell we're going to start practicing with is..." continued Tom, and poor, naive Ginny didn't even question how Tom knew so much about petrification which was an obscure topic in itself, but also countering it which was even more so.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _09:17 pm 7th November, Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts._

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office with the four Heads of House in front of him, all of them were worried about what opening of the Chambers of Secrets meant for the school and what could they do in such an uncertain situation.

Pomona questioned, "Headmaster what is the opinion of the aurors?"

"I've talked about this with Amelia, and as much as she hates to do nothing, she agrees that for now waiting and letting events play themselves out is our only option because of the lack of information we have on the whole subject," he replied.

Pomona gave a small sigh, while Minerva's lips thinned and as she was about to speak Dumbledore raised his right hand in a placating manner and spoke, "yes i understand that you are on edge with all that's happening, especially you Minerva, as ms Warren's death still weighs on your mind, despite how long ago it was, after all you were just 17, and even though you were the head girl there was nothing you could have done, and finding a dead body in general is not something one forgets".

Minerva let out a small sigh and closed her eyes, it was true that when it came to the subject of Myrtle she always thought that if she had been there earlier she many have been able to do something and that poor girl wouldn't have died that day.

"The last time the Chambers were opened they were machinations of a young Voldemort, and this time too I suspect he is involved, though how i do not know so I ask of you to keep an eye and ear on your students, they may be helping him, and not necessarily willingly, or even knowingly," warned Dumbledore to his subordinates.

Snape and Flitwick were the first to nod because they knew that children could be cruel, and dangerous, and above all easily swayed by charms of words which Voldemort held mastery towards.

Minerva did not look happy, at all, if her vanished lips were any indication, and if anything she was probably even more upset on the inside than she was letting on but she too nodded.

Pomona was reluctant but seeing her other three colleagues, she squared her shoulders and gave a small nod.

reminiscing in the future they'll realize just how close to the truth Dumbledore was without knowing it.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _09:45 am 10th November, underground meeting room no 13, ICW Iran Headquarters._

"Thank you for gathering here on such a short notice, especially both of you Magenta and Brain Splatter, given that you had no reason to do aside from your willing participation," began Hennessey, with Spectre beside him.

Everyone gave him a curt nod, except Poseidon who waved her hand at him and loudly greeted him, all of them were dressed in their mission clothes.

"I'll keep it short and simple, we've decided to train agent Freak Boy, and we'd like if you people were the ones who did it, you were the first team with whom he went on a mission, and he has some amount of rapport with Poseidon, and I would like both of you Magenta and Brain Splatter, to accompany us in our efforts because one, you're muggles that means you have a broader view of the world and its happenings, and two again, since you're muggles you're more… vulnerable to certain magics and that might make him more cautious and careful for his teammates well being," he said.

Both of them looked at each other for a minute, conversing non-verbally in a manner that developed from years of partnership, and slowly Magenta nodded to Brain Splatter who turned to Hennessey and said, "we accept."

With a smile on his face Hennessey gave a small nod and began, "I thank you, all of you, and with that some important information id like to pass on, given his performance in your team mission Freak Boy has been assigned the new name Hades, yes Poseidon in reference to the greek god of death, it will help us forge a new identity for him, hopefully one that is more cooperative with us if not outright loyal, another thing one of your duties when training Hades will be to ensure aside from his training that he mingles with as many people as possible."

They gave a nod of understanding without questioning any of it.

"Soon Hades will be coming here to be briefed on new instructions including his new moniker, I hope that this transition goes as smoothly as possible since it'll make a lot of things easier for everyone involved.''

It was around quarter past 10 that the newly named Hades walked into the meeting room, he too was wearing his combat suit, he strode past everyone without so much as looking in their direction and stopped in front of Hennessey giving him a small bow as a greeting.

"Welcome Hades, and a very good morning to you, i assume you've read the package that was delivered to you yesterday?" began Hennessey.

The boy simply signed "Yes," using his hands, that was new, it wasn't a shocker that he knew how to sign but thus far he hadn't bothered with it, for whatever reason he changed his mind was probably something they weren't ever going to lear.

"For the foreseeable future you have been assigned as a team member to all the seven who accompanied you on your mission on Halloween, how the groups are formed depends on the parameters of the mission, is that clear?" asked Hennessey, his voice was authoritative, despite the fact that the boy in front of him probably had enough power and skill to kill him on the spot he wasn't going to simply bend down, he had work to do and he didn't come this far without taking risks.

Hades for his part simply signed affirmative again.

Hennessey extended his empty hand towards Spectre who in turn placed a manila - which she got from god knows where - who in turn gave them to Hades and simply said, "these are your future assignments, who will accompany you on which mission has been decided already for most of them, the few that are left you can select for them on your discretion, and that would be it for today's business, you're dismissed."

And at that Hades disappeared from where he stood, the rest of the people found themselves utterly surprised at their unsurprised attitude at the boy disappearing from what was probably the most fortified building in the country if not the continent.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _03:23 pm 12th November, Zephyr Cove, Lake Tahoe._

The eight of them along with Hell Hound and his apprentice Cub, the tracking specialist of ICW, were searching the area for a - as cliche as it sounds - hidden lab belonging to one of Thanatos' old acquaintances, someone who called went by the name Moriarity, the insane man had the equally insane idea of trying to mix a muggle biochemical bomb made with Basilisk venom, if the notes they had found at Thanatos' old base were any proof, which they were for them, the story on how they found the said base and notes is for another day, but apparently the necromancer himself hadn't been able to find the lab, to the best of their knowledge, hence why they were here trying their hand at it, they had divided in 5 groups of 2 men cells.

"Like really? Who was the fucking idiot who thought it was a good idea to name this place Lake Tahoe? Like really? Lake Lake?" Poseidon complained, she had been in a bad mood since the start of the mission and the name of the are irked her for some reason and she kept grumbling about it, much to her partner Lone Wolf's annoyance who was repeatedly chanting in his head, _'_ _ **Shadow Hit Wizard Guideline, Article 3, Point 2, "It is forbidden to attack anyone without justifiable grounds, …"**_ _'_ and for a second he wondered if the director would be willing to make an exception in his case given his standing and past record.

Meanwhile Hades along with Izanami was checking out a nearby cave, he had been instructed to follow her lead and coordinate with her for everything, both minding their own business and silently carrying out their work, then Izanami spoke up, "Hades, why exactly did you join the initiative?" she was of the mind that either they boy would reply to her question or outright ignore her, she felt he wasn't one with the patience to play mind games or bother with unnecessarily convoluted conversations.

Though before the boy could do anything they heard their radio's static to life and it relayed, "Cub and Baba Yaga cell here, we've found something 1.4 km to 58 degrees, from our starting point, I repeat, we've found something 1.4 km to 58 degrees, from our starting point, requesting backup over and out."

The First to reply was Lone Wolf, "Affirmative, Lone Wolf and Poseidon on their way."

Barely a second after them were, Hell Hound and Brain Splatter, "Hell Hound and Brain Splatter here, Ditto."

Without hesitation Izanami followed "Izanami and Hades on their way."

As soon as she had spoken, Hades grabbed her wrist abruptly and they were once again displaced from where they were and Izanami found herself in front of Cub and Baba Yaga.

Both Izanami and Baba Yaga had enough control on themselves and experience with Hades to stop themselves from going into combat mode, just barely, but they managed it, Cub on the other hand did not hence why the moment they appeared the young apprentice shot a spell chain of _Reducto, Bombarda_ and _Confringo_ in their general direction with lightning fast reflexes, which were effortlessly blocked by Hades.

"What the fuck? How the hell did you just appeared out of nowhere? Even if you apparated - which I doubt you did - but even if you did that it would have meant you've seen where you need to be, which you didn't so what the actual fuck?" shouted Cub, ever since they arrived in this forest they were unable to apparate anywhere, so someone appearing out of nowhere freaked him out.

Baba Yaga on the other hand said in a calm manner, "Izanami, Hades, good to see you here so soon, though I too find myself curious on how this happened, I would assume that this is a product of Hades' doing as i know Izanami well enough that I know this isn;t the kind of thing she would do, not to mention from what I read of her body language she didn't expect it either." not to mention when he disappeared last time.

Izanami simply gave a short nod, while Hades on the other hand brought out his notepad and pen and started writing a reply, which was as follows "mission parameters dictated that it is imperative that all the agents return back alive, preferably uninjured and there were no restrictions on methods to achieve this, following that I simply tagged all of you with some monitoring charms, to reach here I simply followed those charms letting my magic to act as a guide for where I wanted to appear."

Both Izanami and Baba Yaga nodded as if he was stating the obvious while Cub stood stupefied, then Izanami posed a question, "why did you not inform me that you were going to …. Teleport us here?" she hadn't been sure what to call this unique Apparition of his so she simply went with teleportation, not knowing how close to the truth she was.

In turn he wrote out, "On the radio you informed Baba Yaga and Cub that we're coming to back them up I assumed that was permission to use whatever means necessary to arrive here, was I wrong in assuming so?"

"No, while your assumption wasn't wrong your execution was, next time onwards unless it is a situation where you don't have time to inform your comrades always make sure that everyone involved is informed and you have their consent to perform whatever it is you're going to do, it saves a lot of time and prevents confusion and mayhem." Izanami informed him.

Hades wrote out , "Affirmative."

Izanami turned to Baba Yaga and questioned him, "what exactly did you find here? I can sense something from here but I fail to comprehend what it is."

"And that in itself is the problem, there's something here, both of us felt it but what it is we have no clue," was his reply.

Then Hades wrote to her, "Permission to analyze the magic present?"

"Granted," was her simple reply as she didn't see any down side to it.

Hades started to wave his wand around in intricate patterns with occasional lights as a result, meanwhile the other three were waiting for Lone Wolf and Hell Hound because they had more authority in these situations, and if Hades was able to find something in the meanwhile it would be some progress.

Nearly half an hour passed before either one of those teams showed up, and when they did Izanami briefed them on the situation, while Hades continued what he was doing.

Lone Wolf interrupted him, "Hades have you found anything yet?"

Hades turned towards him and started writing, "here is what appears to be a seismic Focal point, to simplify it they are artificial Ley lines created by certain rituals, they take a lot of time and effort to create, and there are two other Focal points connected to this one both are in opposite direction at 128 degrees, both of them are at an even distance of 1 kilometer away from here, permission to explore them?."

Lone Wolf turned to Hell Hound who gave him a nod, then turning back to Hades he said, "yes, but take me with you, it's better to have back up and not need it than need it and not have it."

Then Hades wrote out to him, "permission to teleport to destination? On that note which one should we go to first the one on the right or the one on the left?"

"Permission to teleport granted, and what's your opinion on which one we should check out, is there any difference between them? Aside from their positioning that is," replied Lone Wolf explaining what he meant to avoid any confusion.

"None i can sense from here, and I propose that we go to the left one because Shadow and Magenta are near the right one, should anything go wrong while we are exploring the area they would have enough time to escape to safety," Hades replied.

Everyone blinked at that, it was good reasoning and the seven were quite happy that he was showing concern for them in a way even though his focus was mission parameters rather than their well being.

"Very well then left one it is, let's go," Lone wolf said

As soon as they left Cub exclaimed, "what the actual fucking hell is he?"

Izanami simply looked at Cub and then letting loose a small sigh she began, "Cub, what's the standard recruitment procedure for combat operatives?"

"Umm we observe and scout for talent across the globe via our contacts in different institutes especially schools, duelling rings and inactive aurors what's that got to do with any of this?"

"Why is it that we have no structured institute to train our members? Especially the newer recruits," Izanami questioned back ignoring his question.

"Structures bring patterns, patterns bring predictability, and predictability brings vulnerability, not to mention less chance of corruption due to lack of the said structure," he replied.

"So what do we do when an 11 year old child, almost 12, comes knocking on our doors asking to be recruited?" she asked.

For a few seconds he didn't answer, and then slowly he began, "say what? I mean aside from high level officials the people who know about the initiative yet aren't related to it don't even amount up to double digits, so if that brat somehow managed to find us once, it wouldn't be hard for him to do it again, randomly obliviating him is not a good idea as it could affect his mind, so... it'd be better to keep him where we can observe him," he finished as it dawned on him.

"In part yes, also he has a tendency to casually defy common sense, probably something among the lines of he can do it because he doesn't know its impossible, and given how magic is that's totally possible," she elaborated.

"What?" asked a confused Cub.

"Have you ever heard about a _Fiendfyre,_ take an absolutely corporeal form and follow it's creator like some kind of pet?" she asked rhetorically.

"I have heard about both Grindelwald and Voldemort having good control over their _Fiendfyre_ , but what you're saying sounds so far fetched that it sounds like school rumors, like Balthazar Dion's legendary orgy with the teachers, but I know you, i know you won't do something stupid like that, so i guess that guy has to be one hell of a fighter," he said.

Everyone in the initiative knew of Cub's crush on Izanami, it was often a subject of humor for other agents, especially Webber, their intel specialist, and Izanami's wife.

Half an hour passed before Hades and Lone Wolf returned, and then as they appeared Lone Wolf activated his radio and began, "Lone Wolf to Shadow and Magenta, come here as soon as possible, we've found something major." while Hades was just standing still with his wand in his hand.

It was another 20 minutes before the remaining two members gathered over and then Lone Wolf began with a firm voice, their attention focused on him, "when we first arrived we were informed by Hades that he found a Seismic Focal Point, or in other words an artificially created Ley Line, which was connected to two other, and then we followed them, we found that there are a total of 7 such points spread in a heptagon formation around here, and apparently they serve as an anchor for another dimension, where the lab is, Hades says it is possible to go - there given enough time to prepare - though he can't say what will happen once we're there, too many unknown variables, so how do we proceed from here? I want each man to decide for themselves.".

Without taking any time to think all of them replied at once, "I am coming with you."

Turning to Hades who had not changed his position or pose he began, "Hades how long do you need to make preparations in order to take us there?"

"I can take you right now, all the preparations have been made," was his reply.

"Give us five minutes and we'll be ready," pronounced Lone Wolf.

When the said five minutes passed Hades removed a Long gray rope and a vial filled with a red liquid - blood if their judgement was anything to go by - from a bag that was in his pocket, and flicked his wand thrice, after the first flick the rope started to levitate, spread out to its full length of around 28 feet, by the second flick the red liquid in the vial started to gush out of it and coat the rope thoroughly, and there was far more liquid then a normal vial of that size could contain, an undetectable extension charm nothing out of common, the third flick came when the vial ran out of blood the rope snaked itself around the wait of all the people present, starting with Hades and then the rest of them, and what happened next was as best described by Poseidon and Magenta as being thrown on a roller coaster without anything to catch upon and it lasted an eternity, though it was less than a second, to make matters worse when the trip ended everyone was disoriented, except Hades of course, everyone had expected to find themselves tumbling around so when they landed on their feet they were thrown off balance and promptly fell on their butts, Poseidon who had a lot of experience tumbling around in tidal waves was barely bothered while Magenta similarly was used on going actual roller coasters with such conditions, others weren't so lucky and nearly lost the contents of their stomach including the usually unflappable Lone Wolf and Izanami.

When everyone had reoriented themselves they noticed they were in a blue colored room that was empty for the most part except four doors on each side of the said room, then Hades took out his wand and shot a small flame at the rope he had used to get them here turning it to ash which was promptly vanished, at which Cub exclaimed, "Hey wouldn't we need it to go back?" he wasn't a fan of how they had gotten here, and wasn't looking forward to going through it again, but that option was far more appealing than being in a maniac's laboratory for any longer than he necessarily had to be.

Hades wrote back, "I will create a new rope when we go back, it isn't feasible to use the same one twice, its efficiency drops by 52%."

And no one said anything to that, then Lone Wolf gave them their orders, "okay so we're still going in two men cells, though we're changing the pairings a bit, Hades and Magenta, you're taking the north, Cub with me in the south, Baba Yaga with Poseidon in the east, Shadow and Brain Splatter in the west, and Hell Hound and Izanami stay put, you know what to do, any objections?.

And then when there was no coming forth he started their search, much to their surprise they found everything they wanted soon, there were notes and his experiments, they cleared the whole base in an hour and a half out of which they spent the better part searching any hidden compartments or the like because there was not much for them to take, when they were done Hades took them back outside and then teleported them to the California base of ICW Shadow Hit Wizard Department.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _12:22 pm 19th November, Sahara Desert._

The usual eight were being accompanied by a man named Abasi, who contrary to his name's meaning was quite joyous and light hearted man, their mission today was to subdue and transport a Manticore that was going to a breeding farm for some reason they nor knew nor cared enough to, this was a favour to the director some political bullshit they weren't interested in, and after all orders were orders.

Not to mention they got to see Poseidon being miserable, part of why the whole gang was there despite not being needed, especially Lone Wolf who volunteered for this mission despite having a holiday.

"Ah ha ha ha! someone kill me! Like right now! Ah ha ha ha!" exclaimed poor Poseidon, who was totally out of her element, the heat wasn't agreeing with her, and though no one was out right laughing at her she knew the bastards were having fun. Oh how she wished she could simply be apparated to the reserve the manticore was being kept at, but the reserve and surrounding area was heavily fortified with wards to prevent just that, and they knew however efficient Hades' teleportation would not be appreciated by the staff, not to mention it was a better idea to keep it a secret for as long as possible so their only option was to travel by a vehicle the reserve was kind enough to provide, which much to her dismay turned out to be an open roofed truck, usually used to transport XXXX and above creatures like the Manticore they were here for, rather than an AC equipped SUV, their clothes were meant for practicality not comfort and she sucked at charms, especially cooling charms.

"I would agree with her, I think we've had our fill of fun, now I suppose we should help her out however we can," Abasi said with a chuckle, he understood that there were team dynamics between them he wasn't aware of, but there was only so much before fun became bullying, not to mention the poor girl reminded him of his own daughter a lot so he took pity on her.

Heaving a dramatic sigh Lone Wolf began, "fine Abasi, Hades can you help her out somehow?" he wasn't not helping her due to some childish grudge, mostly, but because he wanted to see how Hades would tackle the situation, he wanted to understand the young boy as much as he could to help him.

The said boy brought his wand out of its holster on his wrist and waved it in Poseidon's direction once, a sphere of water formed around her submerging her up to her neck, and the water was quite cool and reliving if her squeals of happiness were anything to go by.

That was something, and Abasi looked quite impressed if his facial expressions were anything to go by.

Soon they were at the reserve and it was quite big from the outside alone, it was a big white dome with two smaller domes flanking it, how big it could be from the inside which was without a doubt magically expanded was questionable.

"We keep the more excitable ones at the further end of the main building, and before we go in i need you to sign these few acknowledgments, you know the standard non-disclosure about what you see to anyone unauthorised, and the other usual ones," Abasi, said with a shrug that conveyed his unsaid _'what can you do its protocol?'_ Across.

They took a few moments to go through the contacts and finding them to be satisfactory signed them.

Soon after they entered they started being led to wherever it was they needed to be they were, on their way they were intercepted by a harried teenager, who looked utterly relieved upon spotting Abasi and he soon started speaking between gasps, "Abasi!... the Thestrals….. running again….., need help."

Giving a light chuckle Abasi said, "You worry too much Romeo, that's both good and bad, though I'll send whoever i can find to help you out, meanwhile i have some guests to escort."

The now identified Romeo just noticed the entourage that was with Abasi and suddenly started greeting them hurriedly.

"Izanami, Hades, Poseidon help out Romeo will you?" said Lone Wolf, and the three he called out to stepped forward without any hesitance.

"Hmm very well," said Abasi, "I thank you for your help, and ask Zana who'll be there at the Thestral enclosure to guide you at the meeting point." he knew these people weren't exactly the touchy feely type and if they're willing to help solve a situation it was best to simply thank them and move on.

Romeo looked really confused but didn't question Abasi, something they all noted.

After the quartet departed to do what was required of them they resumed walking where they needed to be, 15 minutes later they were standing in front of a heavy looking oak wood double door, beyond it was a huge room of around 2000 sq ft, though that was it there was nothing else they could see, soon Abasi conjured a long rope and tapped it with his wand for a few minutes, the rope glowed blue for a few seconds and then again looked like a normal rope, then he said, "this my friends is a portkey that'll take us to our destination, I hope you all can handle portkey travels, so we'll leave as soon as you grab it."

They all took the rope with some hesitation, which Abasi noticed but refrained from commenting upon.

Soon they all found themselves in what looked like a huge zoo with all the animals around, animals that could kill without any problem at all, Abasi guided them to the cage of the Manticore they were, it was big around 15 feet, and quite vicious, the beast's human head was rested upon its feline limbs, upon spotting Abasi with his guests it smirked and said, "ooh, lookie who's here, with new dinner at that, thank you so much Abasi!" and started cackling.

It didn't bother them at all, they had seen and heard worse, much worse, and some thanks to their youngest team mate, but that didn't make the threat any unreal, they knew a single mistake could cost them their lives.

It kept taunting them and they stood silent, not bothering responding, soon 10 minutes later their comrades being led by Zana arrived at their position, and then as soon as the Manticore saw Hades he immediately changed his tone, "what in the name of magic is that thing! Get it away! I'll do whatever you want just get it away!"

They had expected a reaction when the best saw Hades, magical creatures were sensitive to magic, the more delicate type of creatures like Unicorns, Abraxans, or Occamy, were really uncomfortable when Baba Yaga came near them, they figured if both Baba Yaga and Hades were near the beast it would even make a predator like Manticore uncomfortable, ergo vulnerable, but they hadn't expected such a profound reaction.

Lone Wolf stepped closer to the cage and said, "very well, as long as you don't cause trouble for us we'll keep him away from you, agreed?"

The Manticore took a long and fearful look at Hades then turning to Lone Wolf in a grudging whisper he said, "Agreed."

Soon the Manticore who had remained subdued - though glaring at Hades as if waiting to defend himself should he ponce - was loaded in a closed off box that had been expanded on the inside and then promptly hauled on a truck that was similar to the one Lone Wolf & co. had arrived in.

Later the cage was hauled on an airplane and taken to where it needed to be.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _05:00 am 28th November, Training area no 8, Washington ICW Base._

Things had been fairly awkward for the past few days, though they had gone on a few other missions after that, the incident with the Manticore had rattled them all quite a bit, they had known that their youngest operative wasn't exactly going to be riding Unicorns any time soon, but that was reaction was… utterly unexpected, the Director had been informed about it and he too had frowned which for someone like him was quite a reaction.

Hence why today they were practicing today, team work apparently, they didn't have a problem with remaining professional with the boy, but it was unsettling to know that the boy they, or at least that's what Poseidon thought, had come to care for, was drowning so down that things that crawled in the dark, things whose base instinct was to kill were afraid of him.

She wasn't sure what to do but she wanted to help him that was sure.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _04:20 am 10th December, underground field, Nazarovo, Russia._

They had received intel about a huge trading mob that had formed from coalition of 6 different ones, there were muggles and magicals working in it together, they were trading in organs, humans, exotic animals and weaponry both magical and non-magica, and apparently now they were doing something with a nuke.

It was an all hands on deck situation, all the combat agents had been called including muggles in the know like Magenta and Brain Splatter, they had ambushed the enemy base which was underground quite a lot like the Britsh Ministry of Magic at exact 03:00 am and started decimating their forces at a quick pace, all of a sudden multiple explosions rocked the landscape, and everyone did what they could, on both sides the muggle combatants tried to take down as many as they could as fast as they could without pausing while trusting their magical comrades to make sure that their battlefield didn't come crashing on them.

Hades along with Poseidon and quite a few others went further below, where they expected the captured prisoners could be, while Hades would have made for a heavy weight attacker, they didn't have enough time to ensure that Hades unique tactics caused more problems than worth, and he was also proficient in healing from what he had said, it was time to test his mettle in the field.

Unfortunately they were too late, probably one of the explosions earlier was from here, because there was nothing more than a sea of bodies burned and utterly destroyed bodies, the stench of burning flesh nearly overwhelmed them to the point where most threw up.

Then what could only be called a miracle occured, in future some might even call it fate, but Hades, as he was about to use detection spells to look for some signs of life, felt something around his leg, when he looked down there was a toddler, around a year old if it was anyone's guess, she had golden blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes, she was clinging to his legs like a drowning man clings to a plank, in retrospect she was drowning in dead bodies and no one had noticed her till now, and they saw she was bleeding from her ears.

With a pace Poseidon had never seen Hades display before he started waving his wand around the girl and she started to glow like a tree with christmas decorations, then soon he tapped his wand once against both of her ears, and then three times on her head, the girl glowed in a white/red light for a few moments and started to cry but didn't move physically at all, then turning to the carnage in front of him he started casting what she recognised as detection charms, while the girl continued to cling at his leg.

 **A/n : whew 7k + words my biggest chapter yet, this too was a filler chapter, though i need it to introduce some important characters like Director and the young Blond.**

 **For Director imagine Ian Mcshane in his winston persona from John WIck series.**

 **Yes i am going down the whole assassin finds a child route to help harry, its cliche i know but they work for a reason.**

 **And oh before i forget, whenever i've said Harry/Hades replied it implies he either signed it or wrote it and not verbal communication, as he doesn't understand the importance of verbal communication, nor can he speak at the moment, so carries on with writing or signing, and his emulation of voice is a skill he uses when it has utility and not regularly.**

 **Till later, thanks for reading.**


	12. Chapter 12 Jingle Bells!

_**Chapter 12**_

 _ **Jingle Bells.**_

 _11:12 am 10th December, Meeting Room no 14, French ICW base._

Never in all the time he had known the man had Lone Wolf seen the Director look so disturbed, the man who was capable of keeping calm even when confronted with goric scenes that caused even the most battle hardened and deranged members of their division to be disturbed he looked quite unflappable. Oh he knew that this man was just as vulnerable as any other, he just did a better job of hiding it, because if the leader panicked so would the soldiers, so to see the man in his current state made him quite uncomfortable, and not a small amount of terrified, they had arrived here 2 hours ago to discuss about their young charge and the stray that he had picked up this morning, quite literally so given the said stray was right now sleeping propped against his shoulder, it had taken them a whole 25 minutes to give him a summary of the events that had taken place after which he left them in the room after telling them to wait for him and then he returned 5 minutes ago as disturbed as he was now.

He took one of the bottles of water available in the room and slowly started to take sips from and then let out a sigh and began, "I didn't name him Hades you know?"

The others in the room didn't say anything waiting for the man to continue.

"I was planning to name him something like Arthur, or perhaps after some god like Hercules or Prometheus, hopefully plant a hero complex," he continued. "But no! That woman! Scarlet Witch, just had to have a vision, damnit! And she waltzes into my office telling _**"name him Hades, or you won't live to regret it"**_ and then she disappeared, her usual MO."

That explained the whole situation to them, Scarlet Witch was an infamous woman who was liked by no one except herself, few if anyone knew her real name, she was 157 years old but didn't possess the decency to look like it, anyone who didn't know how old she is would presume her to be in her early 20's, at most, she had an hourglass figure that she was extremely proud of, her moniker wasn't for her powers but for her personality, when she was younger people would call her a scarlet woman, so rather than let it get her down she took up the name Scarlet Witch, but the most important thing about her was that she was a seer, one of the few of the same caliber as Grindelwald, and she was even rarer as she only had visions related to her death, more importantly how to avoid it.

So now when a self preserving woman like her has visions relating to her death with their most powerful and unpredictable combatant in the mix, the least to say the situation becomes quite volatile. If it were any other seer, they would have tried to work their way around the vision as2 the risks would have been worth taking, even though it'd be a shot in the dark, but not when that woman got involved, information from her visions were always accurate, though she passed it on a need to know basis, more in the sense she was the only one who needed to know things, and rarely when she says something to you, you make it a point to listen to her, or tragedy and destruction follows, though it helps that she never causes harm to anyone intentionally because she believes _**"Guilt is the slowest poison to strangle someone, and personally i prefer Bourbon aged at least 100 years for myself"**_.

"I found her at one of the bars she frequents, she was expecting me, and when I told her about the stray he picked up, she was smiling, and I've never seen her smile like that, like I just told her that Flamel was going to give her his stone, and then she just said this much _**"let things happen as they will"**_ , and then again disappeared on me, portkey," he continued, "and now, while I know that not following her lead will result in death and destruction, it goes against every fibre of my being to even possibly place a child in such a dangerous position, i know Hades will never hurt her intentionally, but unintentionally he might just end up doing worse."

It was a well known fact that Director never took chances with innocent lives, especially children, and his dilemma was quite understandable, which was the reason they had approached him in the first place though they didn't have the complication of the Scarlet witch….. Now things were going to become troublesome to say the least.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _02:17 am 12th December, Room of Requirements, Hogwarts._

Harry was standing in another pocket dimension of his creation, if he could have been he would have been really thankful for the existence of the three natural Ley Lines Hogwarts was built upon, which allowed him to perform feats which would have otherwise required him to use either a lot of power or create artificial Ley Lines of his own. But as it was right now he was standing in the dimension he had created and the girl that had come to him on his last mission was sleeping on a king size bed he had conjured, the girl had simply stuck to him, and wouldn't leave him, whenever someone tried to pull her away from him she would get distressed and start crying.

It was protocol that any and every child found by any agent was their responsibility and they were to ensure that the child remained healthy and happy. He had read enough Psychology and Medical Science to take care of a child, fortunately for the girl and unfortunately for the Director's blood pressure he didn't possess the common sense to know that the child was supposed to be handed over to the local authorities as soon as it was safe to and this wasn't written in the protocol guidelines, something the Director would ensure to rectify when he finds out.

He had been advised by certain members of his team like Poseidon, Baba Yaga, and Izanami, to simply hand over the girl to them to take care of her as he wasn't an adult and couldn't take care of her, there were two fallacies with that logic, as soon as he had been registered as a Shadow Hit Wizard he had been emancipated in the magic world and as he had detected the girl was magical just like them so that meant he could take care of her and secondly and more importantly the girl would be distressed as long as she was away from him and it seemed like she had developed an attachment to him, as the psychological books informed him and as such should she be separated from him she could develop abandonment issues and that would in turn cause her further distress, hence it was his duty to ensure prevention of such a scenario, ergo the girl had been brought to Hogwarts with him.

And now when the girl was sleeping which meant that she couldn't get distressed from his absence he left her to conduct his studies on the souls he had collected yesterday when he had killed a gang of rapists in Tibet, though before leaving he set appropriate alarm spells to notify him should she be distressed or awake in general.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _10:07 am 16th December, Near the Black Lake, Hogwarts._

Neville, Daphne, Susan, Ron, Tracey, and Hermione had decided to meet here today in order to discuss the ongoing attacks in the school, as everyone except Ron and Neville were leaving for home tomorrow they wanted to have a final meeting today to discuss their plan of action, they had become good friends after meeting both the slytherins, though Daphne was still a little skeptical about them, Tracey more than open enough with them.

"So dumb and dumber are going to stay at here to research whatever they could about the Chamber while the rest of us are going home, and out of us everyone Except Hermione can ask their parents if they know anything about it, or if they know someone who knows about it, atleast more than we already do," began Susan, who had taken up to occassionally call both the boys to remind them of the stutn they had pulled off.

"Hey!" exclaimed the aforementioned dumb and dumber in offense, though there was no real heat behind it.

Snorting at their antics Tracey said, "yeah let them be, and to be honest I'm kind of glad to be away from here for a while, as long as it may be, the atmosphere was starting to get creepy here."

And that was a point none of them could refute, what was starting to become their second home was now starting to feel like a dark and cramped space, it was almost strangling their spirits.

"It's unfortunate I cannot take any library books home to search them for any clue about the chamber, and if I could have, I would have stayed with you guys, but my parents are also important, you know how complicated the situation is," said a downtrodden Hermione.

While they solemnly nodded to her, Neville and Susan were frowning internally, they had heard from Hermione about how her integration with the Magic world was causing rifts between her and her parents, it hadn't been anything major but it was getting harder for them to relate to each other, and she had hoped that this vacation would be able to help them fix things, or at least start fixing them.

Daphne began, "my dad said he had some things he could share with me, but they were too dangerous to be written down, so he is going to tell me over vacation, I hope you guys have been practicing your occlumency exercises."

Daphne had introduced them to the art soon after they had become friends, she had said it would take a lot of years before they become anywhere close to truly competent in the art, but they were old enough to at least start with the basics to detect a legilimency probe, with the help of a good dose of luck, of course. Everyone had been troubled since the attack on Creevy, and they were determined to get to the bottom of this, for a while the quartet had suspected the Malfoy heir to be behind these attacks but confirmations from both the slytherins in their group put that notion to rest.

"Very well so now that we have our tasks handed out should we go to our usual spot?" said Neville, they had found a room near the Hufflepuff dorms where they could pass time undisturbed, and could call house elves from Neville, Tracey, Daphne and Susan's homes to get snacks and stuff.

"Yep!" exclaimed Ron and Tracey quite enthusiastically much to others humor, both of them loved eating.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _01:57 am 24th December, Hogwarts._

While all the welcomed residents of the castle were sleeping, the one resident that had been highly unwelcomed, was awake and prowling the halls of the ancient castle, he went down to the fabled chamber of secrets as he had been prepared to in order to carry out his sinister plans, he was really lucky that the host he had selected had older brothers who knew some ways out of the castle, using which he had been able to sneak out during the weekends to collect the ingredients needed for this ritual.

It was a lordship ritual, he was going to become the Lord of Slytherin tonight, normally the ritual would have been quite simple, but given his current situation the ritual had to be modified quite a bit, where earlier he simply had to use 3 drops of his blood and an incantation, now he needed to sacrifice 3 pregnant women who were in their third trimester, now that wouldn't have been all that hard for him normally but given the challenges he was facing at the moment he had to be careful in gathering them under Dumbledore's nose, not to mention keeping them sedated and preserved, it had taken him 3 weeks to gather them all.

He would have preferred if there were rituals to speed up the energy transfer from the girl to him or if he could absorb from more than one host at a time but both were impossible, so he was going to use other rituals to get as much as he could at the moment, first most importantly the Lordship Ritual so tat Hogwarts would become less… uncooperative, it seemed years of Dumbledore's mishandling of this magnificent castle caused it to rebel against those who want good for it, those who would get rid of the muggle filth infecting it.

In time everything will be as it should be, in time the castle would be his, to rule, he the one who is worthy of it, the one who will accomplish Salazar's dreams. It was a pity he didn't have the body he used to but that mattered little, he would soon start the rituals necessary to make this body capable of hosting all of his power.

Very soon.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _06:05 am 15th December, Mcgonagall's office, Hogwarts._

Today's beginning had been unusual was an understatement to things, Mr Potter came to meet her in the morning, at the literal dawn of sun, sure she had told him that he was free to approach her whenever he needed, including nights in case of emergency, but she hadn't expected him to be knocking on her door at the literal first ray of light, despite being bleary eyed and still sleepy she invited him in her office which was adjacent to her quarters while she went back and got refreshed, when she returned she saw that as expected Harry had taken sat down where he usually did whenever he visited her so taking a seat opposite him she began, "so, given that you waited till sunrise, yet approached me as soon as you could, I will assume this is an important discussion but not an emergency?".

Harry simply nodded back in turn.

"So may I know what this is about?" she said.

Then Harry wrote to her, "Children."

She read what he had written and then blinked once and then again, then she furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him for a while, and then in a flash it came to her that it might have to do with the children back at the Law household, particularly young John as he would be going back there for the winter holidays, so she asked him to elaborate on what he wanted to ask.

He replied, "I do not understand children, they appear to be distressed even when there should be no reason for it, they're nor hungry nor are they suffering from any physical agony yet they remain distressed, why? And then on their own they would stop being distressed and lapse into a manic mood, what is the cause of these mood swings?"

She blinked again, and took a few seconds to formulate an answer and then after taking a deep breath she began, "well Harry, first of all, I mean no offense to you but you must understand that everyone is different, and that they have their individual personalities, secondly while you are quite academically inclined you might fail to understand the common nuances of others - and sometimes yourself - because they work more on emotion and less on logic as I've come to understand you do."

Harry simply nodded to this.

For a second Minerva was surprised that he wasn't offended at being told that he had failed at something, then thinking about it she drew the conclusion that he either simply thought that it was logical for him to fail at something too just like everybody else, or he had come to realize the difference between his personality and that of others around him beforehand, then she continued, "children tend to need more than simply being physically being attended to, most likely they want attention of those around them - or in your case your attention - hence why they might get distressed because they aren't receiving what they need."

He thought for a few seconds and then tilted his head towards right - what she had come to recognize as a sign for him being confused - then he wrote to her, "then why do they not stop being distressed when i come to attend them? I check over them and do everything I should, I check for diaper accidents, and I check if they're hungry or are suffering from any agony is that not giving them attention? And hence i come back to where I started."

Minerva hmmed to herself for a while and then slowly she began, "Harry when i say that they want your attention it doesn't simply mean they want you to check them over for any physical remedy but to be let's say held by you, to have your attention in the sense that you would attempt to do more than simply checking them over, I'd advise you that next time you face such a situation you hug the child, if possible prop them against you shoulder and run you hands in a circular motion against their back, or if you're finding that a child is distressed around the time when they need to sleep read them a story or alternatively show them a picture book, or if they wake up from a nightmare then give them a small hug and again move your hand in a circular motion on their backs so that they would calm down."

Nodding at those points he began to write them down.

Then she said to him, "what are the plans for christmas at the Laws?"

He wrote back to her, "I've not been made aware of that."

Not really surprised given to the best of her knowledge he hadn't sent any letters to them and nor had he received any, she said, "are you excited for it? The children there would be."

He wrote back "why?" something which really confused her.

Instead of directly answering with what came to her mind first, she asked him to first elaborate what he thought again.

So he replied, "well to the best of my knowledge the children are neither devout Christian nor Germanic, so why would the birth of Jesus of Nazareth or Óðinn."

She started to say something in response only to stop and then consider the fact that she didn't really knew the Dursleys, or much about Harry's life before Hogwarts, so it was well within the realms of possibility that he had never celebrated christmas like others did, so she slowly began, "it is not about either one of them to most of the people now a days - though there are those who truly do worship them and care - these festivals have become an excuse to have a merry time with family, especially for children who will receive gifts, and treats and have a feast with their family, it's about family time and spreading joy to those less fortunate around you amongst other things."

Then he wrote to her, "am I obligated to present gifts to children under my care? And the adults around me too?"

At this point she stopped for a few moments to think about what she would say because it could either make the situation an easy sail for the boy in front of him or drop him in the center of a storm, "no Harry you're not obligated to do anything aside from being polite, that is, let them know that you do not celebrate christmas if it truly makes you uncomfortable, otherwise treat it just like any other day, and as far as buying gifts is concerned they're called gifts because they are given willingly by one to another, under no obligation."

A few seconds passed where Harry sat still and then started writing again, "I understand." and then he stopped for a few seconds and then he started writing again as if he just remembered something, "thank you."

Minerva gave him a small smile and then Harry packed his bag and started to leave her office, apparently his questions for now had been dealt with, and as he reached the door she called out to him and said, "Merry Christmas, Harry!"

He turned to look at her for a few seconds and then started to open his bag at which Minerva stopped him and said, "it's alright Harry, I understand."

Leaving his bag, he looked at her and again gave her a nod and left her office.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _05:16 pm 17th December, Kings Cross Station entrance, London._

Harry was waiting there for Alex and Alex to pick him up as he had been instructed to wait, though he had more luggage with him than when he had gone to the school, after the talk with Mcgonagall he had went and brought all sorts of gifts for the girl and the people at the Law household, of course while being mindful of the statue of secrecy, and soon at quarter past five, the couple arrived at their destination, having commuted to the station in their car, and their son Arthur was with them, he had been settled down in a pram which was being pushed ahead by the couple.

On the font of the girl he had stored the gifts he had bought for her in the other dimension alongside his experiments, and would present them to her on the christmas as they were to everyone else.

Now he needed to figure out how to manage handling both the fonts, taking care of the girl and attending to the Laws household as was expected of him, like that had told him when he had left for the beginning of the school year, _**"so see you again at the Holidays!"**_ he hadn't understood what they had meant by it back then but now when Mcgonagall explained him about christmas he understood that with it being a family time he was expected to be present with the people he lived with.

 **A/n : that's it for today folks, I usually post on 2nd Tuesdays or Sundays if i'm lucky, but yesterday it was raining cats and dogs in my area and there was not internet so i couldn't post sorry for that.**

 **Yes it was a short chapter but since i plan to make it more action oriented for the next few i thought this was a good place to let it end, and I do have a proper christmas chapter planned for our green eyed enigma but that isn't until the 4th year.**

 **I named both the Husband and Wife Alex on purpose as I find it somewhat cute, and i know a couple whose first names are the same so...**

 **And I know that it sounds somewhat weird that Harry went from being frankenstein obsessed with wanting to bring his parents back to the dead to someone worried about christmas but it will be explained soon, to keep it simple he is redirecting at the moment, what he's redirecting I'll elaborate on that later.**

 **So see ya ciao! And thanks for reading.**


	13. Chapter 13 into the corner

_**Chapter 13**_

 _ **Into the Corner.**_

 _02:14 am 9th January, Seoul, Republic of Korea._

Of all the things that they could have been doing right now, so soon after the New Years, fighting a group of idiots in the sewers was not exactly on the top of Poseidon's list, in fact it was so down below that she couldn't even be bothered to read all the way down there, that would be if she had created the said list, not a point of matter, but here she was alongside Hades, Shadow, and Magenta fighting a gang of idiots who thought it was a good idea to try and create a few chimeras, of course appropriate backup was waiting for them outside, but taking a big team in a sewer like this was a bad idea, really bad.

Thankfully for them and everyone involved, at least on their side, not only had they found out quite early about this experiment of theirs, but also the creation of a Chimera was not an easy task, not only was it magically taxing, it was also wasteful as a Chimera was never tameable, and their first kill was almost always their Creator, as Herpo their pioneer found when he was lucky enough to get away with simply losing his right hand and leg.

It had cost 9 of these wizards their lives to create the one Chimera they did have, it had been created moments before they had entered, they probably didn't count on someone on killing it as soon as they had created it, though frankly speaking it was unexpected for everyone, as soon as they spotted it Shadow, and Poseidon both started to launch killing curses at the abomination with Magenta trying to nail it in the eyes with her automatic rifle, magically enhanced of course, an effort that the idiots sought to exploit by running away when they realized that they had messed up big time, thankfully the usual wards were up so they couldn't simply escape without consequences, unfortunately for them Hades who had apparently had taken stock of the whole situation wasn't inclined to let them escape, he simply touched his wand to the ground and flicked it hard, the ground where those idiots were trying to run turned into a quick sand like pit and as soon as they had been buried up to the neck the ground hardened to keep them there.

With the idiots trapped Hades flicked his wand towards the beat and once again let loose _Fiendfyre,_ the saber tooth that they had now familiarize themselves with pounced on the creature made by idiots, but unlike the said creature the sabre tooth had the distinct advantage of being sentient fire so while it could hurt it's opponent the same couldn't be said for the other side.

For a second Poseidon pitied the creature, it wasn't it's fault, it didn't ask to be created but now that it had been they had to eradicate it because the alternative wasn't a viable option, the flaming feline slowly started to disappear, and it took the three of them a few seconds to realize what had happened, the said feline had used its flaming body too full advantage and had sent small doses into the creature it was fighting and had started to burn it inside out, the whole battle between the two beings had lasted barely a minute and when it was over the only evidence of it was a small pile of still smoldering ash and a few spider web designed cracks from where the chimera had struck, it came to them all of a sudden that there should have been far more destruction than what was there, even a minute is more than enough for a Fiendfyre to utterly destroy a space of the size of the sewer they were standing in, yet there was not even a single inch that had been destroyed because of the flaming feline, and that spoke of control, ridiculous amount of control, and when she turned to look at the wizard responsible for it she was greeted by a sight that troubled her greatly.

It was nowhere near as gory as it easily could have been, neither was it something that wouldn't be out of expectations when dealing with criminals who didn't care for others' lives, the men and women who had earlier been buried under the ground were no longer so, instead they were lying on the surface shackled by bounds made of the same ground that held them captive not long ago, and they were bound far tighter than necessary, to the point that it wouldn't be surprising if they had broken bones, that too would have not been beyond expectations if it had been someone else that had captured them, but it was Hades, who never swerved from protocol, as much as it caused them trouble he never went beyond what was required of him to do, he never antagonised anyone unnecessarily, and here he was from what she could make out of the situation taking out his frustrations on them - as she could think of no other motivation for his actions, they had fought scum worse than these people, far far worse than these people, oh and she had seen him experiment with spells like the infectious Inferi spell of his but that was different somehow, in part because she too joined the _SHW_ initiative because she wanted to improve her skills, and they were there to eliminate those people as it were methods were not a bar, he simply chose the most efficient one - it scared her.

He didn't have an ounce of common sense, though through no fault of his, but from everything they had seen he didn't have emotions either and he always was dictated by logic, but now he was starting to exhibit, and to begin with frustration was not exactly a good sign, and yet Scarlet Witch's vision makes things all that much complicated, well all she could do was pray, maybe it was time to visit the pope once and ask him for a blessing.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _12:23 am 25th January, 2nd Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, Hogwarts._

Neville was awake right now, which was quite unusual for him, he always went to bed early and woke up early to tend to the plants, but here he was awake and a third worried, a third depressed, and another third self recriminating, oh and lets not forget totally seething, of course not, just two days ago the Heir had attacked again and this time the target was Tracey, their friend, till now it hadn't been personal, oh they had wanted to help solve the issue but all the victims thus far were acquaintances in the passing and not actual friends but this was different, when they heard about Tracey getting attacked they rushed to the infirmary, and he was still sure that Daphne hadn't realized just how fast she had been running, nor had she realized that her Ice Queen facade had broken when she started weeping for her best friend.

He had taken her to the greenhouse today morning, and had her help tend to the mandrakes as a way of helping Tracey, it wasn't much but if the way her face was set in steel when she started watering the plants - a sight he would have definitely laughed at had the situation not been so dire - it helped her in some way at least, and there was one thing he was sure of, while he wanted a piece of the Heir, she wanted to tear him to pieces.

They had come to know from Lord Greengrass about how Voldemort had claimed about being the Heir of Slytherin and then there was the whole Hagrid issue, they knew he had been accused of opening the chamber previously, but they also knew there was no way he could have done something like that, at least not on purpose, so their best lead was Voldemort but how he was involved was something they didn't have even the faintest of ideas.

Feeling a little restless he went down to the common room and sat in front of the comforting fire, someone must have forgotten to douse it, well good for him, it must have been some time since he was down here when he heard a noise like the common room portrait opening, and when he turned to check what it was the next thing he knew was darkness.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _11:25 am 26th January, Room of Requirements, Hogwarts._

Harry was in his laboratory pocket dimension of the Room and at the moment he was telekinetically directing a golden ladle to stir a silver liquid in a huge pool made out of black wood, all the big tanks containing the red liquid had disappeared, only to be replaced by the wooden pools that were around as high as 3 to 4 feet, and all of them were being stirred with a similar ladle at the same time, the liquid within had a gleam about it that wasn't normal, very likely that it was magical by nature, the liquid was bubbling and if someone were to touch it they would find it to be flaming despite no visible fire heating it up.

When he was done stirring he brought out a big flask containing a pink liquid, he rotated his wand over head in a clockwise direction once and then flicked his wand over the flask tapping the entrance of it, all the silver liquid rose out of the pools and rushed into the flask, after which the newly made concoction started to shake violently, almost as if it were ready to erupt like a volcano then suddenly he took out a small container out of nowhere, opening it he pinched a bit of navy blue powder from it and sprinkled it in the flask, almost immediately the concoction settled down.

Placing the flask on a table which had just been conjured, he started to move towards another table that was located at the end of the room, but not before he vanished the now empty pools with a long arching flick of his wand. The table in question was quite humongous, by any standards, it covered an area of nearly 3,852 sq feet and on top of it was a paper that covered the whole surface, printed on the paper was what only few would properly recognize as a ritual formula, it was written in numerous languages from the modern english to the ancient enochian, and given that the size of the ritual formula for the Philosopher's Stone was barely a 10th of this, anyone who knew the basics would be able to say confidently that this unknown ritual was either a big fuck up, or something drastic, or a total waste of time.

He was reviewing it, the conclusion that he had reached was not wrong, simply not the one he wanted, so he was going over the equation again and again, contemplating what he could change to reach the conclusion her needed. All of a sudden one of the alarms he had placed on the girl alerted him that she is distressed, leaving the Lab dimension he went to the dimension she was in and he saw that she was seated on her bed crying, he went up to her and following Professor Mcgonagall's advice he hugged her tightly who in turn grabbed his hand as tightly as she could, and then started rubbing on her back in a clockwise motion, and as expected, she started to calm down and slowly she drifted to sleep, while she had fallen asleep she hadn't let his hand go, so rather than leaving her to continue his work, he sat there because it was always possible that she would wake up and get distressed if he left.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _02:14 pm 02 February, Golden Apartments, Brazil._

It was rare for the alchemist couple to receive guests now a days, especially after they went through the whole cloak and dagger of destroying the Stone, few knew that they were still alive, and fewer still about their whereabouts, and no one except their Apprentice and their current guest knew of their house which was hidden under fidelius whose secret keeper was the aforementioned apprentice, but now given the current circumstances the witch in front of them had requested - through Albus - that they grant her an audience, and despite their introvertive and antisocial tendencies they made it a point to be aware of the ongoings of the larger world, hence they knew very well about her, more importantly _who_ she was _._

"I know _who_ you are, but I prefer to call people by the names they prefer, so what would it be?" began Perenelle as her husband set tea for all three of them.

Picking up the cup set in front of her she took a whiff of it, smirked, and then began, "I'll have to admit Nick i didn't expect you to have such skills, but perhaps I should have, after all it is said alchemy began in the kitchens, as for your question Nell, you can call me whatever you want, though usually I go by either Scarlet, Darling, or my most preferable one in bed, Honey." by the time she was done saying she her grin had gained a salacious tinge to it, which was without a doubt directed towards the older woman.

Others would have probably been flustered or annoyed by Scarlet's actions, but the alchemist couple was simply old and experienced enough that they merely found it amusing, with a small smile Nicholas began, "you are not the only one to assume that i cannot cook for my life till they remember that alchemy, as you stated originated in the kitchens, the process actually began in ancient Greece when..."

Perenelle sighed as she covered her husband's mouth to stop his lecture, she loved him dearly, loved him for the past 5 centuries but his single track mind when it comes to alchemy was still annoying, "I apologize for my husband's….. eccentricities, he tends to forget that not everyone shares his enthusiasm for alchemy."

Scarlet simply tittered at the by play.

"Now I believe that you do have a good reason for being here today, don't you Scarlet?" said Nicholas, gone was the jovial old man, whipped husband, replaced by the sharp man he always has been, and Scarlet knew play time was over, Nicholas Flamel didn't hide due to fear but because if he fought he could cause as much damage as his apprentice if not more, sure he didn't have the same montorous power that he did but his sheer repertoire of spells and more importantly ability to make the most of them was more than enough.

Inclining her head in acknowledgement she began, "today I'm simply here to introduce myself, and if possible flirt a little with Nell."

The couple's eyebrows rose but before they could say anything she continued, "oh and I believe we have a mutual acquaintance of sorts, who would soon, really soon, need our help."

That statement stopped the couple cold in their tracks, the amount of mutual acquaintances they had could be counted on one hand and still have 3 fingers left, and neither Albus, nor Lisa Delacour, their only other confidant and good friend who knew this woman, were in any trouble that they knew about, though given her abilities it was probable that even they didn't knew that they were going to be in the kind of trouble for which they might need help.

Before either could say anything they were again stopped by her, and she began, "No, it's neither of them, the mutual acquaintance i am talking about is the one who sent you that anonymous letter this past summer."

Nicholas frowned for a few moments and then staring in her eyes he began, "you know who it is, yet you're talking in circles and aren't telling us because you either won't or can't."

She simply inclined her head in acknowledgement.

And then it was perenelle's turn to frown after which she said, "whoever it is is going to be in huge trouble and you expect us to be able to help them."

It was a statement.

Inclining her head in acknowledgement Scarlet said, "I just need you to be ready for when it happens, I don't know the specifics of what will happen hence why i need you to be ready."

The couple looked a t each other for a few moments and then turning to her they gave her a slight nod at which she smiled, gave a small nod and promptly left.

Though not before she said, "so what do you say Nell, now that we have that bit of unpleasantness out of the way, how about a small bedding?" and waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

And made for a hasty exit when the older woman went for her wand, though the said woman's husband who was busy giggling like an idiot wasn't so lucky.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _09:58 am 08 March, Ahmedabad, India._

Hades was wandering the streets searching for a wizard who had tried to kill Poseidon recently, he along with his cohorts planned to capture her and use torment her for her role in taking down their friend who was a known serial murderer and rapist, while Poseidon had more than managed to keep herself safe, two of them had managed to escape, thankfully they had overestimated themselves and underestimated her and didn't bother doing anything to hide their identities, one had been caught when he was trying to escape the american continent, unfortunately the other had already been beyond their grasp, one of their informants informed him that the man had been seen hiding in India, visiting famous tourist spots to try and blend in with the other tourists posing as an enthusiast.

Since today was _Dhulendi_ the celebration of the 2nd day of holi by playing with colours, their usual gear was being camouflaged and worn under a standard white Kurta Pyjama worn by the locals, and they had smeared enough colour on themselves to blend in perfectly, while keeping their identities a secret.

When he was wandering around one of the alleys nearby had a gaggle of women, old and young, who were playing and singing noticed him, and thinking he was a lost child pulled him in with them and by the time he left the alley he was thoroughly soaked and buried under colour, if he would have had normal ears they would have probably still been ringing.

It was after roaming for nearly 3 hours that he found his target, like them the man had been apparently playing holi with civilians, though for wholly different reasons, here in a secluded spot he was leading two women who were probably under his control if their glassy eyed look was anything to go by, and before it could go any further he stunned the man with a strong stunner, he took the women and after a brief scan of their memories left them near their home, which was coincidentally the same alley where he had been dragged earlier.

And then with the man in tow he left.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _01:42 am 09 March, Headmaster's Quarters, Hogwarts._

If he were truthful to himself Albus would say it out aloud that there was no way he was going to sleep today, unfortunately, he had mastered the art of lying to himself, so here he was lying on his bed with his eyes screwed shut lying to himself about the probability of sleep tonight, and the faces of all the students that had been petrified flashed in his mind, trying to ignore that resulted in those faces being replaced by that of poor Myrtle and her distraught parents.

And trying to get rid of those thoughts resulted in a revisit of every horror Tom had forced on them, and that forced his eyes to pry themselves open and his eyes, had anyone seen them at that moment they would have found themselves wondering whether if they did actually belong to Dumbledore, they looked all foreign, all wrong, where they usually twinkled like water of the rivers did at the time of dawn, soft, comforting, and welcoming, now they were cold icicles, and equally sharp, all dangerous and frightening waiting to fall on its unfortunate victim and skewer them, and above all they were frightening more than anyone, or almost anyone except those who had seen him duel Grindelwald.

' _No more, a miracle is called a miracle because it happens once, and I refuse to depend on them, I am a teacher because I teach, but perhaps in my years of teaching I had forgotten that it doesn't matter how old you get, how many ever students you have guided you are never too old to learn, and perhaps I had also forgotten something crucial from my years as an alchemist, that if a procedure does not work you must, grudgingly perhaps, but you must adjust it for without change you won't find the success you desire, and attempting the same thing again and again expecting different results was a fool's errand, so I refuse to be the fool anymore'_ thought Dumbledore.

Recently, unknowingly so, young Ronald had pointed out the flaw in his philosophy of giving second chances to everyone, it was while he was playing chess with Filius, something he still found funny as the charms professor lost against the youngest Weasley boy much to his consternation.

And with the whole Heir of slytherin business, oh he knew that Tom was behind the whole disaster but the problem was that they didn't know how he was doing it, and should they find out a confrontation would be inevitable, a violent confrontation, so yes should it take place he won't pull his punches, no more giving mercy to those who would choose to turn it into a weapon and harm the innocent.

Oh he won't stop giving second chances altogether, but he'll give them to those who actually want them, the reason he hadn't actually killed Gellert all those years ago was that when he had lost perhaps something in him snapped, and the delusion of righteousness he had about his crusade crumbled to dust.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _02:51 pm 9 February, Room of Requirements, Hogwarts._

Harry with his back facing her was sitting down by the girl while she ate some snacks, he had provided her a bowl full of fruits for her to munch on, in the meanwhile he was running equations in his mind, it had been a whole two weeks of trial and error but the equation he had been trying to create hadn't borne any results and he was running out of variable combinations to try.

All of a sudden he felt a pyrokinetic feeling travel through his body, and it hurt! It hurt worse than anything had thus far, worse than Uncle Vernon's sessions, worse than _Fiendfyre,_ unimaginable pain, _'maybe my body has reached its end point, the girl, need to get her to safety.'_

And as he was about to turn to teleport the girl to Lone Wolf along a letter explaining that since he passed away the girl's responsibility would fall unto his next of kin but due to the lack thereof, he, Lone Wolf, as his immediate superior was selected because the girl had been retrieved on a _SHW_ mission.

Before he could do anything the alarms he had set on the girl to inform him should she be distressed aperted him that she was suddenly disturbed, all of his other thoughts discarded like trash, he turned to her and saw that she was crying silently and flailing her arms in his direction, he went to her and unable to discern what was wrong with her he simply picked her up and propped her against his shoulder and started to rub her back in a clockwise direction, soon like always she calmed down and went to sleep.

Though he didn't realize for the first time in a good while Harry had been backed into a corner.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _03:33 am 09 March, Chamber of Secrets, Hogwarts._

As the Headmaster was contemplating his philosophy on forgiveness and his general attitude on fighting, on of the primary reasons he was forced to do that was in the process of putting a young girl's body through a life changing process, a ritual he too had gone under in his own body, albeit when he was much older, it required the blood of Unicorn foals along with that of many squibs along with some other ingredients like _Felix Felicius_ and a whole slew of body restoration potions, and arranging for all of that without any servants and a body that wasn't his own, not to mention immature, had been quite a hard task, but finally he had all the ingredients required for the Peak Magic Resonance ritual, one of his own creations, and his proudest achievement, bar his Horcrux of course.

So in the center of the hall, there was a tub filled with a pink concoction, and around the tub there were several runes in different languages, slowly he stripped down the clothes the young girl was wearing and went into the tub and crouched into the potion, and then as the whole body was immersed into the potion it lit itself like flames from hell, heat so scorching that it would have reduced people to ashes simply for being near it, and then when the flames died down, the girl's body started to rise from the crouched position and placing the right foot on the edge of the tub, her facial expression contorted into a smile, albeit one utterly sinister and unsettling on such a young face, and then now in the darkened chamber the eyelids that had been covering her eyes opened to reveal a pair of blood red eyes.

 **A/n : That's it for today folks! Sorry for being late my computer broke down, so I'm kind of dependent on other resources for now for the foreseeable future, so the updates might be slow.**

 **And when I say servants for young Tom, i mean his house mates who followed him, because he would have never considered the, friends.**

 **Till later and thanks for reading.**


	14. Chapter 14 The Chambers of Secrets

_**Chapter 14**_

 _ **The Chamber Of Secrets.**_

 _07:45 am 25th January, Gryffindor Common room, Hogwarts._

Neville found himself being woken up by his bushy haired best friend, apparently he had slept on the common room floor last night, the last thing he remembered was thinking about all the events that had happened as of late, and then nothing.

Now while he was going through his morning ablution, something at the back of his mind was nagging him, nagging that he was forgetting something really important, but for the life of him he couldn't remember, shrugging it off for later contemplation he got ready to go and meet others in the great hall.

And they also had to visit Tracey, a reminder that snuffed out all his enthusiasm for the day, it had been quite depressing to see the snarky and bubbly girl lie unmoving like that.

Mentally making a note to check on the mandrakes again he got out of the bathroom, got dressed and proceeded to the Great Hall.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _08:47 am 12th February, The Great Hall,Hogwarts._

Through the girl he could see those around him, though just glimpses at a time, but he didn't need to completely take over the silly girl to become aware of his surroundings.

He would have dealt with the pest that was the boy who lived the other day when he was sitting in the common room unguarded, the only problem was that it would have set Dumbledore in action, and that was something that he couldn't afford, soon though he would be able to perform the necessary rituals, just another month, and then the world will once again tremble under the wrath of Lord Voldemort.

On another frustrating point, he had been unable to get much on the enigmatic Potter, from what he had heard the boy was - as much as it pained him to say - better than he was at that age, he wanted to see if the boy could be recruited to follow him, if all goes as planned, eventually he would make for a good student, but if not, he would be wiped out as soon as possible.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _02:29 pm 09th March, Headmaster's office, Hogwarts._

In a particularly noteworthy event, there were three people present in the Headmaster's office, one the holder of the said office; Albus Dumbledore stood behind his desk with a calm that was utterly escaping the only woman in the office, his deputy Minerva Mcgonagall, looking at the blonde man in front of him said, "If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside, however, you will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me…Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

Mcgonagall straightened with pride filling her at his words, being encouraged by her teacher's words even in this bleak situation, while Malfoy who had been smugly smiling till now formed a sneer on his face as he looked at the only wizard that was a match for his master, utterly loathing the fact that he hadn't even been able to catch the old man off guard.

Then all of a sudden the blonde slammed a piece of parchment on Dumbledore's table and drawled, "Pack your things and leave by tonight, we, the Governors, will find someone who can and will deal with the …. Muggleborn situation." turning on the spot he left slamming the door in a display of impotent rage.

Both the teachers in the room knew that when Malfoy said deal with the situation he wasn't talking about helping the students.

It was only after Malfoy left that Minerva spoke for the first time since this farce began, "Albus, once you leave you know as well as I do that the situation will only get worse, and who ever will be puppeteered in your stead will ignore the situation, if not outright condone it!" by the end of the statement her voice had started to rise quite a lot of octaves, a bit more and she could have broken glass, thankfully Dumbledore had not only set silencing spells around his office, hence preventing anyone from hearing her, also managed to get her rising volume to come to a halt, without any spell work.

"Minerva we must do what we can, i understand that the situation appears to be quite dire, and I happen to agree with your predictions about what might happen soon, yet there is a silver lining in all of this, now that I am not bound to the castle for however long that may be, I can stretch my proverbial and literal legs and reach some of my more obscure and stubborn contacts to help us out, so for now I'll start packing what needs to be packed while i ask of you to inform the rest of the staff that we shall meet today for an emergency meeting as soon as possible."

While she yet again demonstrated her displeasure at the prospect of Dumbledore's dismissal when her lips thinned, she gave him a curt nod and went about way to do the needful.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _00:54 am 11th March, Southern Peak, Himalayan Range._

On a small platform there were two people, one an old man who was wearing robes that looked like they had seen better days, he was bald and had some facial hair, and his eyes were closed, and if it wasn't for the slow yet rhythmic inflation and deflation of his chest, one would presume he was dead. The other person was presumably a young man, wearing a black skin tight combat suit with a hood which had an active obscurus charm hiding his face.

To understand what was happening we would have to begin at the beginning.

The young man had come searching for answers he hadn't been able to find, he had heard that the monks who dwelled on these hills were enlightened in the matters of spirits hence why he had come here, seeking guidance from those who were better learned than him.

He had entered the hills from the Western side where he met the first monk of his journey as soon as he had approached the holy man, he was told, _**"**_ हे पथिक तुम मुझसे जो उत्तर चाहोगे _ **,**_ वह तुम्हें नहीं मिलेगा _ **,**_ तुम सही रास्ते पर हो _ **,**_ तुम्हें सिर्फ सही मार्गदर्शक खोजने की जरूरत है _ **,**_ आगे बढ़ाओ _ **!" (Oh wanderer you will not find from me the answer you seek from us, you are on the right path, you just need to find the right guide, carry on!)**_ the monk hadn't event opened his eyes to look at him yet somehow gave him an answer to an unasked question, had he been someone else he would have hesitated, but given he was not, he carried forward his journey, and slowly trekked towards North, and then progressively towards East, and at last he was South bound, till now he had met 16 more monks who had given him the same answer as the first, at the end of the range he found another monk, and as soon as he arrived close to him he was told, _**"**_ हे पथिक _ **!**_ आप जो खोजते हैं वह आपके घर के अंदर _ **,**_ आपके घर के पास और आपके घर के कारण मिलेगा।" _**(Oh wanderer! what you search for will be found inside your home, near your home, and due to your home.)**_

He went back to his sanctuary in Hogwarts, and began pondering upon the words given to him by the monk.

' _Now what exactly would qualify as my home? Hogwarts where I spend most of my time or the Law's household where i have been assigned? Or even Godric's hollow where i was born,' he started thinking while stirring a concoction in a golden cauldron which was about the size of 3.14_ .

The said concoction was amber red in color and was quite thick, not unlike the life giving liquid, had anyone come near it they would have felt its magic regardless of being magical or not, it possessed a sheen that gave it a fey appearance, unlike other concoctions created in this lab this one was neither frothing or bubbling, it just went at a steady pace, and as he was stirring it he had an epiphany, _'maybe I am going at this the wrong way, certainly I have not found any success as of recent but maybe that is because I have stagnated due to some form of preconception, and it can only be solved by help from someone, the problem is that there is no one sufficiently knowledgeable who could help.'_ He knew what he was doing wouldn't be accepted by anyone whom he could recruit for help, like Dumbledore or the Flamels, and others who could possibly help him were dangerous people who could cause more destruction than help and put his objective at risk.

Then all of a sudden the one stirring the concoction jerked his head towards the side as he was alerted to a certain girl being in distress.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _03:56 pm 11th March, Hogwarts Clock Tower Courtyard._

' _Yes! All the pieces fit! It goes according to the legends and would explain how the monster was able to escape notice for so long, it was after all in plain sight! Now that we have proof we'll be able to do something, and the professors will….'_ was what Hermione was thinking as she rushed through the halls of the castle with her companion at the moment, both carrying a conjured mirror in their hand, her thought train came to a screeching halt as she saw a yellow eye in the mirror she was carrying.

She fell to the ground, limp and lifeless, at least for a given value of both, her mouth open in a silent scream, unfortunately her companion experienced the same fate, as such neither was able to help the other, and consecutively they also didn't notice the long shadow that descended on their prone forms,

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _11:17 am 11th March, ?._

In what looked liked a highly posch room sat two people, one a diminutive man with sharp features borderlining Human and Goblin stared at the man in front of him with black beady eyes, dressed in an immaculate black suit with silver trimmings, and if one looked close enough the the cufflinks he wore had some sort of coat of arms which bore the signs of being forcefully erased, a banishment perhaps.

The other was an old tall Man, with a long silvery beard, with a half moon glasses sitting snugly on his crooked nose, he was dressed in a flaming red robe, and had a small black hat on top of his hat, sipping on the tea served to him by his host.

"Albus, if you weren't the most dangerous man i know i would have killed you long ago for being half as annoying and insufferable as you are." began the diminutive man.

Dumbledore simply chuckled and replied, "Of course Rasende, though I believe you would have to fight off quite a huge horde of people if you want to get the first short off me."

And the now named Rasende's eye started to twitch in annoyance, but regardless he ploughed on, with a wave of his hand a small rectangle box shot out of a nearby drawer and landed on the table beside them, and he pushed it towards his clearly unappreciated guest.

The said guest took that as an invitation to look inside the box, and he raised his eyebrows as he removed the contents, a pair of glasses which had a rough frame made out of iron, and the lens were golden colored, the metallic frame as if it was meant to be worn by someone who needed it to protect their eyes quite delicately, not unlike the glasses used by muggles post cataract surgery.

"You said you were going to fight a Freyja be damned Basilisk, and this pair of glasses can help you neutralize the death stare of it, but beware the testing of the item is limited to a young gorgon and nothing more, there is no guarantee that it will work as you hope." was the reply to the unasked question.

With a small smile on his face Dumbledore nodded and then began, "Of course it will work Rasende, and yes i consider myself warned, so should any tragedy befall me, it is due to my own shortcomings, now this has been a pleasant but i believe i must leave as i have some other appointments to attend, once again thank you very much for everything Rasende."

As he reached the door to exit, his host called out to him "pass my regards to that foolish son of mine will you?"

Without turning Dumbledore answered, "Of course, I am sure Filius will be quite pleased to hear from you."

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _04:42 pm 11th March, Hogwarts Entrance Chamber._

Unprecedented panic had engulfed hogwarts, as the situation had gone from bad to worse, an emergency evacuation for all students and teachers alike was about to begin, while here, Filius Flitwick waited for Dumbledore to arrive with the backup he was going to arrive with.

The youngest weasley child had disappeared and the appearance of a message on the walls stating "Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever", had been the trigger for this chaos enmasse.

As if it wasn't bad enough that they had found miss Granger petrified in the corridors despite all of their precautions especially given that she had been… whatever Filius was thinking had been interrupted by a bright light, signifying a portkey, and from it emerged Dumbledore along with four other people, two were people Filius knew, the magizoologist Newt Scamander and his wife, Tina Goldstein, while the other two were unknown, the first a young woman dressed in a simple black saree who was scanning her surroundings warily, the other a tall and muscular bald man who was wearing a blue sleeveless shirt and a blue faded out jeans, and he was carrying a huge scroll on his back.

As soon as the emergency had begun Filius had sent an SOS to the wizened headmaster, hoping that his friend and mentor could do something, as they were at the end of their rope.

As soon as Dumbledore's eyes landed on the charms professor, he began, "I believe that while introductions are in order we can do them on our way, as we have little time, and must begin our mission post haste."

And as one they rushed inside the castle, their destination, The Chambers of Secrets.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _03:57 pm 11th March, Hogwarts Clock Tower Courtyard._

Harry had arrived in the courtyard after being contacted by Hogwarts, it was different this time, everytime the ancient school had contacted him it had been quite loud and clear, this time it was muffled garbled and muffled, as if it were being bound from contacting anyone, so just like last time he went where he was asked to go.

He had heard about the Petrifications taking place in the school, but they fell out of his Jurisdiction, and he had not been contacted by anyone for assistance, so he had not done anything to deal with the situation.

But he had been entirely unprepared for the sight that greeted him, in front of him were the prone forms of Hermione Granger his Housemate, and Professor Minerva Mcgonagall his Head of the House, but what he had been even more unprepared for was the cryokinetic feeling that spread throughout his body, which also made his snap out of his stupor as he began scanning his surroundings for any danger finding none; as he believed the earlier cryokinetic feeling to be some form of an attack on him, post haste he grabbed both women and disappeared.

 **A/n : Hello people, I thoroughly apologize for being so late, but like i mentioned my computer broke down and I was able to buy a new one just this week so I'm back for now.**

 **To anyone who would be reading this, thank you very much for your support and patience with me.**


	15. Chapter 15 The Domino Effect

_**Chapter 15**_

 _ **The Domino Effect.**_

 _04:57 pm 11th March, Hogwarts 2nd floor girls lavatory._

"Yes I understand the disbelieve you're feeling at this very moment, and i jest you not, but the entrance to the fabled Chambers Of Secrets, is most probably here, specifically beneath that particular sink with a snake embossed on it, and Usha if you would be kind enough to" Dumbledore began as he saw the disbelief clear on the faces of his companions.

Taking a deep breath, and putting her current reservations of Dumbledore's sanity aside; for now, she went near to the aforementioned embossment and spoke, "§Grant me Access Oh Chamber of Secrets§", none of her companions gave any reaction to the terrifying feeling of parseltongue and patiently waited for something to happen, and then when nothing did she started speaking ever phrase she could think of some like Salazar Slytherin setting to be used as a password, getting more and more frustrated with each failed attempt she started to believe that they were not only shooting in the blind but were also missing quite terribly, and their failure could cost a young girl her life, that was till she screamed in her frustration "§Open you gods damned fucking Chamber of Shit!§" and as soon as the first word was out of her mouth the sink started to make a creaking sound to reveal a gaping opening that went downwards.

Dumbledore turning to Flitwick said, "Filius continue with the evacuation, the battle could go out of hand and if the circumstances were different, I would have preferred to do this after evacuating everyone from Hogwarts but given the circumstances are what they are, I believe we should do what we can, though to err on the side of caution I have taken steps to ensure that should we fail to neutralise the beast and it's master someone would do it for us and for that too we need to ensure that not a single innocent life remains in castle" with his piece said he donned the glasses given to him by Rasende and took a dive in the entrance, swiftly followed by Tina, Newt, and the young man with them, immediately followed by an annoyed exclamation of "what happened to the plan of letting the old man scout the place first?" and then the sound of another person jumping down the hole.

They were greeted with a dark and damp cavern which further opened in a tunnel, as they started heading towards the only available direction, they picked up their already fast pace after noticing the skeletons of animals lying around them, the tunnel seemed to have endless twists and turns and then, at last, as they sprinted around yet another bend, they saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds, this was it they believed again Usha did what she was here for, though in a quiet tone this time, she said §Open§ and with an equally low creak the gate opened and Dumbledore once again rushed forward but this time only Tina and Newt followed him while the other two remained behind as the door closed once again.

As soon as they had left Usha's partner removed the huge scroll from his back, he opened it splayed it on the ground and then he started to further unroll the scroll in such a fashion that it formed a perfect loop along the lines of the tunnel, sticking to the wall and roof with a sticking charm, she voiced a question in her mind, "So Johnathan, why do this? I mean I know that you come from the japan's infamous 100 hands sealing corps but you're taking a huge risk in many ways."

Without turning to her, the now named Johnathan removed a satchel from the pocket of his jeans and from it he removed a small rectangular box which he immediately opened to reveal a set of calligraphy brushes and a huge barrel, opening the barrel which apparently contained ink, he removed a black brush with red feathered ti[p, and started writing on the scroll in japanese, the silence seemed to stretch for a few more minutes but before Usha could say something else he replied, "while i would like to regale you with my life story, right now i believe is nor the time nor the place, but to sum it up i would like to quote my teacher, Namikaze-Sensei _**"There are times when the risks of the task are daunting but a true member of the sealing corps would look at the reward and forge ahead"**_ at first I didn't understand what he meant but now i do, oh i so do, and by the way I'm a former member, I was expelled from the corps."

Usha blinked, a little fazed by the new information and silently let the man return to doing what he was.

While the duo was guarding the gate the trio went ahead, Tina and Newt with their eyes trained towards the ground, were staying a few feet behind Dumbledore who was using all the detection spells he knew - which was quite a lot - to look out for everything he could expect in enemy stronghold, ranging from traps to defensive wards which could delay them and of course the obvious enemies, much to his surprise and not a little gratitude towards every deity that was listening, he found none as that meant they could allot more time towards rescuing Ms Weasley and less towards fighting for their own lives, afterall dead men cannot protect anything.

As soon as they had exited the latest tunnel they were in, they encountered the main chamber, filled with humongous statues of serpents, the light was quite dim and the silence haunting, faced against something that could see as clearly in darkness as it could in light, the darkness was so encompassing that it made them paranoid for the beast could very well be a few feet away from them and they wouldn't know until it was too late, there was of course the obvious choice for arranging their own lighting, though that too came at the price of giving away their position and rendering them vulnerable, not to mention there was always the possibility that if they were undetected thus far their sudden appearance could put an end to ms Weasley's life due to an instinctual move by their enemy.

After a short amount of contemplation he sent a silent prayer towards all deities once again and hoped that their luck held, then he used a small obscure charm meant to conjure up a ball of light that could be used to not only shed light but because the ball was once conjured, controlled by will rather than wand it also left the caster able to fight, of course if the caster couldn't concentrate on the light properly then it would dissipate.

The moment the lights went on in the room he went on full alert as the first thing he saw was the head of the basilisk protruding out of a statue - of Salazar Slytherin ofcourse - he was about to start using some of his more destructive spells, ones that few people knew even existed, and even less knew how they worked, simultaneously he yelled to the ones behind him to _"take cover!"_ from both the beast and him, -all of this happened in a second, enough of a time span for an average witch or wizard to panic and get themselves killed - but then before he even used the first spell he noticed something peculiar, the beast was unmoving, as he dared to look at the beast with a closer inspection as he hadn't wanted to look for a gift in the horse's mouth till now with testing the glasses he observed that the eyes of the beast were destroyed, he again started using spells, these were meant to specifically detect life in creatures like basilisk or chimera, abominations created with destructive purposes, and they came up negative as expected, a small part of his mind grimly noted that the serpent was just big enough to swallow someone of ms Weasley's size whole.

He called out to the Scamanders as he moved towards the beast, his eyes darting around the chamber as he looked for the ms Weasley or the master of the beast - Tom as he assumed - but he found nothing, Newt meanwhile had gone to inspect the serpent was frowning and was quite silent lost in his thoughts, Tina who too had took a cursory check around them took it upon herself to snap her husband out of his ruminations and started rubbing her hand on his back in a clockwise motion, it always made him snap out of his thoughts, just like he did right now.

Looking at the expectant faces of his two companions he began, "The basilisk was killed by being stabbed through the eyes, and then being lobotomized" both Tina and Albus waited for Newt to elaborate as it wasn't like him to state something that was awfully obvious, "now you see the eyes being destroyed is not that big of a deal, aside from their death stare they aren't all that tough, just like any other creature's eyes, but beneath the eyes there is an inside hide which is as tough as its outer hide, if she was killed by some spell it would make sense, but basilisk hide is tough, it would take quite a sharp object to cut through it, like something of a goblin forged, if not tougher."

Both Albus and Tina took a moment to digest this information and then redoubled their efforts to find young Ginny, after having searched the whole chamber when they found nothing they went back to their companions, their mood utterly grim and a single question haunting them, _"what in Merlin's name happened here?"_.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _03:59 pm 11th March, Hogwarts 2nd floor girls lavatory._

Harry left both Professor Mcgonagall and Ms Granger in the school nurse Madam Pomphery's care, that is to say he teleported them in the infirmary and after making a sound to alter her of their presence he teleported out of the room without being seen, as Poseidon had taught him, _"if you ever need to get involved in a dangerous situation try to keep the non-combatants away from it as far as possible as it makes it easier for you to do what is needed to be done,"_ though before he left he took the piece of parchment that was in Granger's hands, it was a brief description of the Basilisk from the book "Fantastic Beasts by Newt Scamander" and there was a small notation of _'pipes'_ written on it, as his mind worked to piece the puzzle together with all the clues he had.

Now his first stop was in the girl's chamber where she was playing with a few toys he had bought for her, as soon as she spotted him she abandoned her thoughts and started to run towards him babbling as fast as she could, as soon as her sprint towards her guardian had began she lost her footing and started falling as it was typical for children to, but before she could hit the ground she had been caught by her guardian, who immediately summoned a bag of necessities he had made for her, changed in his Hades gear sans the hood - and then promptly teleported to Spectre's office.

The woman had recently offered to look after the girl whenever he needed someone to, no questions asked, though he didn't understood what that bit meant, but chalking it up to normal people's behaviour he simply did as he had been instructed and after bringing her to the office handed her to the woman, the girl despite being as young as she was understood that she was being left behind and started crying instantly, not wanting to be separated from her favourite person, Spectre immediately began trying to placate the girl and gave Hades a nod which was returned by the young man, who immediately teleported away again.

He returned to Hogwarts, just outside the infirmary intime to overhear professor Flitwick saying "first ms Weasley gets taken into the chamber now this, Merlin help us" then he moved to where he had found both the women, and started his trail from there, mentally going over all the information he had on the Chamber of Secrets, the petrifications that took place over the course of the year, and the fact that the last time the Chamber had been opened a student namely Myrtle Warren had died, a piece of information he overheard Greengrass and Longbottom talking about in a class of History of Magic, so treating the said first victim as ground zero he went to her usual adobe, the bathroom she haunted, at first glance he found nothing, then on closer inspection he saw a small snake sigil embossed underneath a sink, he figured that this was not only an indicator to where the chamber was but also a form of lock that could be unlocked by a parselmouth, that was a problem as he didn't know anyone who could help him right now, the few Parselmouths he did know were civilians hence a liability in a fight.

He looked around the bathroom, and soon enough he found what he was looking for, an opening, located near the ceiling of the room a small vent, barely big enough to get one's hand through but that was enough, if the beast was traveling by means of pipe line it was most likely huge enough for someone to enter, he went close to the wall and levitated himself upto the level of the vent and then placing his wand on the edges of the vent he focused and willed his magic to do the needful, soon the vent was big enough for him to enter it and thus enter the pipeline, as expected the inside was large enough for a few people to stand in - or for a large serpent to maneuver itself - with a flick of his wand he undid that magic that had made the opening for him, thus eliminating the possibility of any stray following him.

Now the biggest problem was that he wasn't familiar with the layout of the pipe lines and he didn't have the time to go around searching old-school as Magenta had put it, there was a life on line and Shadow Hit Wizard protocol dictated that at all times the life of a hostage is paramount, unless the circumstances force you otherwise, so he used a sonar technique he had developed recently to cartograph unknown places while reducing the possible danger, but here he tweaked it, his usual technique worked very much like a modern submarine sonar from which it was inspired but right now his enemy could use these vibrations to find him, and that could put ms Weasley's life at risk, so he stabbed his wand on the floor of the pipe and focused, sending low amounts of vibrations throughout the tunnel slowly, it took him the better part of 10 minutes to find what he needed right now, and armed with that knowledge he stood ramrod and removed a broom - Nimbus 2000 - that he kept with him at all times as he was taught by Shadow and started flying towards his destination.

It took him another 10 minutes to reach where he needed, he had taken a longer route - which included destroying some of the barred sections of the tunnel - which was a necessity as he didn't have a parselmouth who could open the main entrance, but it was all for the better as when he got to the chamber itself he arrived from the back side and had a clear view of the whole room and the situation before he had to engage in combat.

There was ms Weasley lying naked on the floor inside a Greek runic circle which appeared to have been made by blood, and another runic circle which was connected to ms Weasley's which had a similar makeup, and more importantly there was someone or something in the circle, it was a spirit of a boy, probably what was controlling the beast thus far, without anything else of note he simply teleported near the two circles startling the boy for a second.

The boy smiled at Harry and began, "Hello Harry Potter, it's a pleasure to meet you, my Name is Lord Voldermort, the greatest wizard to ever live!..."

Harry simply kept staring at the spirit, his transparent apparition making his state of being quite obvious, but he couldn't understand how this was happening, it wasn't a ghost, a ghost couldn't do any of what this spirit was doing, he looked at the runic spheres again and it became quite clear that it was a transference ritual, one that not only absorbed life force from ms Weasley but also would transfer the spirit to the body, after ms Weasley's life force had been absorbed, thus rendering it capable of acting as a vessel, and quite a compatible one given the amount of modification magics he could sense from the girl's body, and enough time had passed that even if the ritual were stopped she would die.

"I've seen and heard what you can do, as such I would like to form a friendship with you mr Potter, I've also heard what happened between my other self and your parents, terrible business that is! But I believe that was just caused by some misunderstanding, and I'm sure we can work our way through it," said Voldemort in a smooth voice, but as he saw that he was being utterly ignored by the boy in front of him he heaved a sigh and said, "and here I thought you had potential, potential to clean this world from muggle filth, afterall you have seen the power of the dark, just like me, and you too can achieve greatness under me, but if you won't side with me I'm afraid you are to die."

At this point others would consider her a lost cause and focus on defeating their adversary, he however was not others, hence he kept focusing on finding a way to keep her alive, if he simply rushed in and broke the ritual circle the shock will kill her regardless, and then he heard the spirit hiss something, followed by a rumble by the backend of the room where Salazar Slytherin's statue stood, and soon the great serpent started to make its way out of the statue's now gaping mouth and as he was about to look at it he saw something, a diary, under ms Weasley's head, which was till now previously hidden by her hair, and Harry who had been distracted by the sight of the diary rendered himself to be a perfect target, or would have been until he waved his hand towards the general direction of the serpent and two swords appeared out of nowhere; shining brilliantly, and descended into the serpent in a cross far faster than anyone could follow.

As Voldemort saw the destruction of one of his greatest weapons in a display of what he assumed to be effortless and powerful wandless magic, he trembled in fury, envy and not a little fear, how dare the child destroy something that was his! HIS! Lord Voldemort's! He would punish the child so utterly, so painfully like the children he had destroyed in the orphanage, as a vicious snarl left his mouth he turned towards the boy who had started to become his bane only to be horrified and terrified for his being as they boy held his previous vessel in his hand.

Meanwhile Harry who had been wondering what he should do came to a conclusion, till now one of the other reasons he hadn't dealt with Voldemort was because he hadn't known how the dark lord's apparition was here, to be more precise, which means he was using, there were more than one and if he was wrong about how to deal with it, if done wrong he could end up causing more harm than benefit, but now that he knew that he was dealing with a horcrux he quickly assimilated a quick plan of action, using his wand he sent a low powered cutting charm on ms Weasley's wrist and drew some blood, and then telekinetically directed that blood to coat the diary, as soon as he had the required amount of blood he turned towards the teenager version of the dark lord and stabbed his wand on the diary and poured a lot of magic in it, then a sudden bright explosion took place in the chamber and when it died down the apparition was nowhere to be seen, then he took his wand a bit away from the diary and then shot a small projectile of flame from his wand - very much like a bullet from an automatic rifle - towards the said diary which soon let out a muted shriek.

The moment the diary's shriek ended ms Weasley's eyes snapped open for a second, her eyes changed from the absolutely blood red orb they had become, to something quite more normal but while her sclera had returned to their former white her irises remained red, revolving around everywhere in not a little terror, and as soon as she spotted him she felt something she couldn't place almost like an implicit feeling like she could trust him, and then she once again lost consciousness.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _05:15 pm 11th March, Hogwarts 2nd floor girls lavatory._

Dumbledore's retrieval party which had went in to rescue ms Weasley had just exited the chambers, their mood quite grim, the feeling of failure was quite heavy on them, and even Fawkes's songs of encouragement weren't helping them, had Dumbledore not been despairing ms Weasley's death he would have noticed what his friend was trying to convey, fortunately for Fawkes, there was someone to do it for him, as an owl patronus came barging into the toilet and Flitwick's voice spoke from it, "Albus quickly come to the infirmary, ms Weasley just appeared here!"

For a second the whole party stood still, and as soon as his message sunk in them they rushed towards their new destination being led by Dumbledore, whose speed Usha noted absentmindedly was way faster than anyone of his age had the right to, and as soon as they entered the infirmary they saw the resident mediwitch running diagnostic spells on the girl.

Alerted of their entrance made by the commotion they made, Flitwick took the party away from the patient and mediwitch to a corner of the room to give answers to questions they undoubtedly had, "well from what Poppy has told me she was packing the essentials of the infirmary, after all the patients had been moved to hogsmeade for the emergency evacuation, then as she was about to leave ms weasley appeared in front of her out of thin air! And after alerting me she started running all the diagnostic spells she knows and is still doing so."

With a grim but hopeful look in his eyes Dumbledore nodded towards the charms master and sat as he hoped for the best.

 _01:13 am 18th March, Hogwarts infirmary._

A stocky young red headed man sat on a chair, his calloused hands were steepled quite forcefully, and his body appeared to be quite tense, he was observing an even younger girl who was lying on a bed nearby him, he was watching her like a hawk as if she would disappear if he took his eyes off her, and all he could do was pray, pray that his baby sister woke up, that she started laughing again, like she normally did.

And fortunes shined upon him, while his sister didn't exactly sat up and started acting like everything was normal, she did groan once, and pried open her eyes, blinking a few times after which she looked at him and blinked a few more times, and then lost consciousness.

He immediately yelled to alert the mediwitch, who within a minute rushed towards them.

 _05:02 pm 21st March, Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts._

Albus was seated behind his desk, his hands were steepled but they were quite calm unlike the young man who was sitting vigil towards his sister, he recalled everything that had happened recently and heaved a great sigh.

From what they had been informed of by ms Weasley, he was able to piece together the story, she had been possessed by Tom, or a horcrux made by Tom, when he was still at Hogwarts, via a diary given to her by most probably Lucius Malfoy and then Tom used her body as a proxy for his own and unleashed the basilisk on the school, thankfully no one died, but there were still too many questions without answers, who saved her? What happened to the Horcrux? And what had happened to ms Weaasley?

The issue with the girl was different, while there were quite a few changes in her, most obviously her new eye color, her personality had died a quite death from the psychological trauma she had suffered, and would require quite a lot of help, thankfully he was able to squash any official enquiries into the matter as the department of unspeakables would have wanted to cut open ms Weasley, both metaphorically and literally, and the ministry would have been quite happy to comply thereby sweep the whole problem under the rug.

He just heaved a sigh and started completing some of the paperwork he had, after all, just because his deputy had woken up it didn't mean he was going to let her go all… what was the expression again, ah yes gung ho on the burdens she bore for him.

 _09:38 pm 20th May, Torch of the Statue of Liberty, Newyork._

A young boy and a teenage girl were standing here, normally this would be considered a romantic scene - or the beginning of one - but there was nothing romantic here. The girl had called the boy here because he needed some help and this just happened to be the closest hangout she frequented.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked him, as she took a pouch from his outstretched hands, they were both dressed in their respective combat uniforms, in response he simply wrote her a note of "yes".

She eyed him once again and then left to do what was requested of her, two days ago the aforementioned boy came to her asking questions like, "what should they do about the people they rescue from their captives?" "has our mission failed if they are still suffering from the after-effects?" "and could they help? If yes, how?"

As she started answering his questions she learned that he had recently rescued a girl from a dangerous situation on which he refused to elaborate, and apparently she was suffering from depression and PTSD, and her family couldn't afford psychological treatment for her, so he took it as his responsibility to help her out after all her life was still under threat.

She slowly explained to him how it was not his responsibility and how he had done everything he could have, but when he seemed adamant about helping her out, she simply smiled at him and ruffled his hair by reaching in his hoodie, then she informed him about how she had some contacts who could help out depending on where the girl's family lived.

After getting the necessary information she asked him to deliver the required amount of money in 2 days time.

 _13:25 25th of May, Near Ministry of Magic, Britain._

A lean bald man was distributing a set of free promo lottery tickets, he scanned the people around him as he looked for his target, as soon as he found the portly red headed man he approached him in the most inconspicuous manner he could and just as with others thus far he handed the man a promo lottery ticket to the man, except this one that he had just removed from the pocket of his pants and handed it to him and then moved on continuing with what he was doing.

11:32 am 02nd June, Azkaban.

A portly man stood shocked as a man imprisoned in this facility asked for a newspaper, as if it were a joke, the sheer boredom on his face terrified him, but what he didn't know was that the man was not focused on the paper so much as on a family photo displayed in it, more specifically a rat displayed in the said photo.

 **A/n : that's it for today folks, I am terribly sorry for the delay but you know stuff happens in real life, have a good day and read, till next time!**


	16. Chapter 16 Insane

_**Chapter 16**_

 _ **Insane.**_

 _10:15 am 9th June, Law's Household._

At breakfast Charlie could sense the uneasiness oozing from the adults, Alex in particular, she as if trying to make it look like nothing was wrong but she kept fidgeting with her cutlery while constantly glancing over all the children as if she were running a mental tally of them, including Harry who as usual was in his room, as she turned to look towards the stairs time and again - discreetly enough that none of the other kids caught it - while she also took deep breaths to calm herself.

As the breakfast came to an end Richard rose from the table and announced, "everyone I need a moment of your attention, please follow me."

All were surprised but gave him a nod and as Richard was about to say something else, Harry came down from his room with his cutlery in his hands and he proceeded to lift his charge's cutlery and signaled for the boy to follow him which he did obediently, and as soon as they were done with their new routine where Harry washed the cutlery while John observed how he did it, and then John washed himself while Harry supervised him, had it been anyone else Richard would've told them to leave the chores be for today but as it was Harry whose primary interaction with them were moments like these he made an exception, and as soon as they were done with their routine Richard said, "Harry good job once again, but now if you will please come with us, there is an important discussion to be had in the family."

Harry gave him a nod and started to follow him as they were beckoned, they were taken to Richard and Judy's bedroom, which being the master bedroom was also the biggest in the house, there was a TV in the corner of the room and its screen displayed photo of a gaunt man with long hair, Harry instantly recognized him as Sirius Black, the Death Eater responsible for the attack on his parents.

As soon as the children were seated Richard pointed towards the screen and said, "now kids I need you to understand that you are perfectly safe, but you must still be careful when you go out, now look at the photo displayed on the Telly, that man is Sirius Black, he is a very bad man, and if you ever see him go and inform the nearest adult you can find is that clear?"

As the children nodded once Richard started giving them a thorough explanation of what he wanted them to do if they ever spotted, and other precautions he wanted them to take like going anywhere in pairs, once he felt he was thorough enough he started to quiz them, "John, who's the man on the telly?"

"Umm he's Serious Black, and he's a really bad man," replied the child with a quiet voice - as he was instructed to talk in such a manner if he were to ever spot the man in question although it seemed the boy would need to be coached a little - and it brought a small smile on Richard's face leave it upto their youngest to make the situation light.

Then moving on he asked another child, "so Rachel what would you do if you ever spot him somewhere?"

"Uh I should inform the nearest possible adult, but while doing so i should also make sure not to point towards him as he might see it and get us in trouble, and if possible I should inform either someone at home or a bobby if i can find one," was her reply.

Giving her a slight smile and nod Richard continued his impromptu quiz for a while longer and when he was satisfied he told most of the children to leave except the oldest 5, and addressing them he said, "okay now i know you know that you know how to be safe and how to take care of the kiddies, but i need you to promise me something, you won't leave any of the kiddies unsupervised alright? And I also want you to promise me not to do anything reckless if you ever saw him, or for that matter get into any other dangerous situation, is that clear?"

Then he dismissed three of them only Charlie and Harry remaining in the room, then he went towards the cupboard in his room and removed a rectangle box from it, it was a mobile phone - It's the Nokia 101 They released it last year! Exclaimed charlie as it was handed to her - now addressing her he said, "this was originally meant to be a birthday gift for you, but given the circumstances I believe now would be a better time, now understand me young lady I have full faith in you but I need you to promise me that you'll treat it as the privilege it is and not as a right, is that clear?"

The reply he received was a tight hug and multiple nods from the girl in question.

Parting from the soon to be 18 year old, he turned towards the odd yet all the same endearing boy that they had picked up last year, and crouching down to the boy so that they were looking eye to eye he began, "now Harry i don't know how you view us, if you like us or if you're indifferent to us or whatever, nor do I want to know, but I want you to know that we love you and care for you, so I want you to promise me that once you go back to that school of yours you will stay careful and do everything you can to keep yourself safe, is that clear?"

The raven haired boy took an unusual pause and after a few seconds nodded once, after which they too were sent away to do whatever it was they wanted to do.

That night the Emerald eyed wizard went back to Hogwarts later than he usually did at night, spending the earlier time setting protective enchantments on every resident of the house, and even when he returned to Hogwarts he spent his whole time with the girl rather than his experiments.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _06:38 pm 1st September, Scottish Highlands._

Remus John Lupin was having the weirdest day of his life, and that definitely topped the time he and his friends went to vegas for Prongs's bachelor party, a trip he remembers only in flashes.

He had read in Dumbledore's letters about how unique Harry was, and how despite physically resembling James quite a bit they had nothing in common, but it was an entire another matter to be confronted by the said reality, nothing could have prepared him to meet the silent boy he did that day when he boarded the Hogwarts Express, the boy simply gave him a nod when he was greeted and went back to reading, Russian folklore about the Koschei it seemed if what little he could make out was right, nodding in approval he sat across the boy and then before he could say anything more to the boy they were interrupted by two girls entering the compartment, one a blonde with blue eyes and one a redhead with freckles - a weasley if he had to ever guess one - and they took a seat next to the raven haired boy, the redhead giving a look he couldn't decipher and then both too removing their own books and reading, thus forcing him to postpone any further dialogue with the boy.

As a few hours flew by he realized that was just the beginning of it, a carbon copy of James, who was most decidedly not like him in every way given that his late friend despite being a good student could not be voluntarily made to shut up even if his life depended on it, to the point even the teacher's gave up on trying to shut his motormouth in the classes and simply resigned themselves to it, though partly because he never said anything hurtful to anyone, just all the random comments that came to his mind like how some spells were weird or how some creatures had some defining features or atleast what he considered defining features, unlike his son whom he hadn't heard make a single noise.

Now a few hours well into the journey as they were nearing the castle he started to feel a small chill, the Dementors, he realised immediately, as his lupine senses went on edge, but when he peered through the window glass, the sight that greeted him made his blood go cold, the dementor's were flocking to the train in droves, but they weren't doing anything to it, in fact he would even dare say they were trying to keep an arm's reach worth of distance from them, far enough to run away if necessary but also close enough to attack if forced to, and after having seen Voldermort use these demons in the first war he knew very well whatever was happening wasn't normal at all, so he decided to make the best of circumstances, and promptly removed the emergency chocolate no 4 that he kept in his front pockets and started eating it - after offering some to the children of which the girls accepted yet the boy declined - and left his thoughts to be visited on a later time.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _07:54 pm 1st September, Hogwarts Entrance Chamber._

Minerva took a deep breath trying to calm herself down, she had come to know soon after Black's escape, the ministry in all of it's incompetency yet again managed to surprise her with it's stupidity by placing dementors - of all the Merlin be damned things dementors - near children, if she had a say in it no child - or adult for that reason - would ever be near those loathsome creatures- especially poor ms Weasley, after last year's debacle she had hoped that the girls would have a good year, unfortunately it didn't seem to be in the cards for her - though as it stood she did not, so all she could do was pray to whoever, or whatever, was listening to her that no harm comes to her children.

Nonetheless for now it was time to do some work, straightening her back she looked all the disciplinary teacher she is and went to make the final preparations to greet the first years, but before she could go to the ante chamber she heard the main entrance creak open, and very distinct sounds of someone, or two someone's coming up the castle, her cat animagus did give her some extra senses, nothing ridiculous just better hearing and sense of smell, and they were someone young if their light footsteps were anything to go by, so she went by to check as it was too early for any of the students to be making it up to the castle, and as she reached near the sounds she was left stupefied for more than one reason, primarily It was ms Weasley and ms Lovegood who had just entered the school - a small part of her mind noted that it was a good thing as that meant they were away from those things, but being second years they were inexplicably early, until you counted the person apparently escorting them, her emerald eyed enigma.

She saw them walk up to her and halting quite close to her, then Harry greeted her with his customary nod and turned towards the girls giving them a nod too and then broke into a fast jog towards the inner sections of the school, which was quite obviously not the direction of the great hall, and it seemed that his companions had not been informed or consulted about this as they were blinking at the sight of it looking quite startled, quite a lot like herself a few moments ago.

Shrugging off Harry's usual antics, she looked over to the two girls, Ginny specifically, she looked a far cry better than what she looked like last year after the debacle in the chamber, it seems those special counsellors in egypt did work out at least as expected, she had been informed by Arthur that Ginny still suffered from PTSD - the usual, fear of dark, and would tense up whenever anything related to the chambers incident was brought up, sometimes leading to a panic attack - but it was a work in progress, and she was supposed to keep writing to those counsellors, she also noted the brown eyes the girl was sporting, the muggle contact lenses that ms Granger had advised to hide ms Weasley's new red ones, so she said to the girl, "ms Weasley tomorrow before breakfast please report to my office, we have a few things to discuss."

To which the redhead nodded and then meekly looked towards her blonde friend and then the great hall, Minerva mentally snorted all Weasley's were alike in that respect, thinking with their stomachs.

Giving the girl a soft smile she said, "now hurry up the hall, you'll get some of the best seats given how early you were."

And the two did just that.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _08:24 am 1st September, Director Hennessey's office._

"Sir, we are not going to take any action with regards to Sirius Black's escape?" questioned Spectre as she organised the notes she had made with today's discussions with the director.

The wizened man hummed a few moments and then turned towards his young protege and began, "until ordered to or such circumstances arise no, you can even say his escape is quite fortunate for us."

The young woman simply furrowed her eyebrows, unable to follow her mentor's line of thought.

Chuckling for a few seconds he gave her a small smile ang began, "so look at it this way, Sirius Black, a death eater, The Death Eater, who was accused of being responsible for the attacks on Potters and Longbottoms and of being Voldemort's right hand man, not to mention how he fooled Dumbledore for so long - and I must admit, despite our dramatically varied philosophies about life, death, and everything in between I will always admit that he is one scary and perceptive man, though not infallible, definitely not - is no small feat, and now he has escaped the one prison which the British ministry termed as inescapable, and the longer he stays away the worse it looks, which can be used in future as leverage to pressurize them when it is really important."

She gave a small nod of understanding at that and then immediately followed it with a question, "why not deal with him now? He's weak from so many years of imprisonment, not to mention quite vulnerable right now with a severe lack of resources, why let him run free and risk him becoming problematic or even dangerous in future?"

Without skipping a beat, he answered, "In reverse order, is he weak from from his years at Azkaban? Most likely, is he vulnerable? Equally unlikely, a man like him who not only managed to retain a clear mind around those demonic guards but also escape, is like a cornered animal, highly unpredictable and even more dangerous, though to be honest I must admit all of my sources have found less than nothing about any of his moments, which is both good and bad, good because it means he hasn't approached any of the Death Eaters or Sympathizers, bad because obviously we are in the dark about his moments, and even if we manage to track him now any attempt to capture him will most likely cause lots of death and destruction, both of which can be avoided if we let him grow a little complacent, paranoia will allow him to escape us, overconfidence will be his downfall.

And what after we capture him? As it stands we aren't well liked by most governments because they think we're working based on someone else's agenda and we wouldn't be able to convince anyone that he poses an international threat of the kind we usually deal with given the current circumstances, and then they can use this as an excuse in future to cut down our activities, to hinder us from doing what we need to, and that is a best case scenario if we capture him alive, and if we don't and things get out of hand we'll most likely be dismantled and all that will remain of us are some file records."

She took a few moments to digest it and then gave him a small and slow nod at understanding.

He smiled softly at that, it was part of the reason he took her under his wing in the first place, she was capable of learning from other's experiences and point of view, something few were capable of, and once she has enough years under the belt she'll be dangerous, scarily dangerous, then he started speaking again, "That would be the primary assessment of the situation, the secondary benefits that we could reap from it - or the losses we could suffer - namely Hades, though in the small picture it seems inane to worry so much about one agent, but the bigger picture compels me to focus on it, if he reacts badly to this whole situation we can use it as an excuse to persuade him into retirement when the time comes and he wishes to part from us, yet if he deals with it in a calm manner and should he - however unlikely it is - wishesh to stay with us we can use it to sow a sense of order and well sense into him."

She nodded and took a few moments to contemplate everything they had discussed today, and also what they hadn't discussed, things he hadn't told her due to varying reasons.

With a soft smile on his face he interrupted her thoughts and said, "now my dear i must leave as i have some other matters to tend to, and I would appreciate it if you get started on the files i asked for."

She gave him a small nod of acknowledgement and left.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _09:48 pm 12th September, Hogwarts Headmaster's office._

Today they were holding the annual discussion for the child development, or good old gossip as Horace used to call them Dumbledore lamented, they had to skip past Saturday as it had been a short week and the dementors were displaying a worryingly odd behaviour, as such both the Scamanders were also present today with the teachers to discuss how to deal with the issue as a whole, so when everyone assembled he began, "I believe that as introductions have already taken place we can cut right to the heart of the matter."

Everyone in the room except for Tina and Snape became visibly uncomfortable as Dumbledore's voice while still as calming as always was also unusually grim, so as asked to Newt began, "well as you all know the standard routine for dementors, their Hive mind and their usual strengths and Weaknesses, this new odd behavior of theirs, while technically unheard of is still following the Hive mind schema as such I wouldn't worry too much about it, though as much as I would like them to be as far away as possible from children I'm afraid we have little choice in the ministry's decisions except to follow them, so yes follow the usual rules; go everywhere in pairs and practice up your patronus spells and you should be good to go, I will visit as often as I can for regular inspections."

The aforementioned odd behaviour was that the dementors were circling the Hogwarts ground in a set diameter, and nor were they straying in the circle nor out of it, just circling the borders of the school's famous wards, while this was a relief in the sense that meant no one would be hurt anytime soon, it was also frightening when you thought about how it broke their usual pattern of disregarding such behavior and following their instincts, their hunger, more importantly what in Merlin's name made them do it because it had to be something equally if not more frightening.

All the teachers nodded to Newt's instructions and even Snape gave a curt nod to the magizoologist, the Scamander couple were of the few people he respected, at least enough to be civil with them, and soon they started chatting up trivially, throwing in both the important things and tidbits that made this gossip, ...gossip, all the while Remus was quite silent, though Newt had wanted to have a personal statement from him about the issue with the dementors given he was the first person to notice and recognize it, he hadn't had any time to do so, and thus Dumbledore acted as a proxy for him and informed Newt about the incident on the train.

Taking note of this Minerva called out to him, "Remus is everything alright?"

Her voice managed to startle Remus out of his thoughts and he flushed as he realized that he had spaced out, and the others understood that immediately - except Hagrid who was now starting to look a little concerned about him - while most gave him a small smile of understanding as those who were attending the meeting for the first time were usually lost like him, the Potions master was about to say something - undoubtedly scathing - was interrupted by the DADA teacher, "well I wanted to have a small chat with Mr Scamander about something of a situation I encounteredrecently."

Newt blinked for a few moments and started to look around till he was elbowed by his wife who first pointed at Remus and then him, and still it took him a second to work out what she was saying, "oh you Meant me, I mean Remus - is it alright if I call you that? - please call me Newt or Newton as whenever someone calls me mr Scamander I feel as if they're referring to my brother, and did you want to discuss something about our little Dementor problem? Some little detail you noticed recently and wanted to inform me of?"

"Well no, its uhm , umm, it's …" he began lamely.

Suddenly Dumbeldore tried to help Remus out of the situation he had gotten himself into - probably thinking that his question was with regards to his affliction - or as Prongs was used to saying , "Meddle in it" something he found to be incredibly insulting towards the wizened man but for now couldn't help but echo the sentiment, "I believe that something like that can be discussed later ….."

And as he saw the others reach the same conclusion as Dumbledore - including the potions professor whose lips curled into a sneer - he ended up blurting, "noit'sjustthatwemayhavewitnessedaboggart'strueformandthenhaveitdestroyed." immediately following which he slapped his hand on his mouth, swearing internally, enough to make sailors blush.

Everyone paused at that and looked at him quite weirdly and Tine voiced the thought going on in everyone's mind, "What?"

Remus let out a small sigh and his shoulders sagged as he repeated what he said, this time slower, "it's just that we may have witnessed a boggart's true form and then have it destroyed."

"WHAT!" again Tina echoed the thoughts of everyone in the room, and appropriately loudly.

Turning towards Dumbledore and Newt he began, "well a boggart had snuck into the staff room's cupboard, and I thought it might be a good idea to have my third year class face it, so two days ago when I took them for it, I gave the class the introduction and summary of what they were doing after instructing them on the incantation and wand movements, I turned around from the class and towards the cupboard making it look as if I was preparing something and while in that position I asked the class about who would be the first to face the creature, I expected someone to step up instead it seemed everyone stepped back, well almost everyone, except two boys Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter - here Remus gave the Scamanders a look as if asking if they knew who the pair were, or more specifically the latter one to which they nodded - and they were the only ones i wanted to avoid having face the boggart because there was quite a possibility that it would turn into you-know-who"

At that almost everyone in the room except Newt, Tina, Snape, Dumbledore and Remus himself shuddered.

"So having to pick between the two I picked the one I hoped I was not making a mistake with, and called forth mr Potter, and the boggart suddenly started to rumble loudly in the cupboard, I thought it was getting excited sensing fear, so with some trepidation I set it free, instead of taking a solid form it shot out like a puddle of black goo, and for a few seconds I was confused as to why would someone be scared of something like that, and then that puddle shrieked and leapt away from the boy as if trying to escape and before I could do anything more than blink a spell was shot by mr Potter - the Riddikulus spell if my guess is anything to go by - and that blob of mass exploded like a balloon filled with water, and then as soon as I came to my senses I dismissed the class, and I'm still having trouble believing what I saw."

By the time he was done, everyone in the room was out right gaping, even Snape to some degree, and then the meeting was soon adjourned without another word being said.

 _00:22 am 1st September, Room of Requirements, Girl's Chamber._

As Harry entered the girl's chamber he was greeted by her sleeping form laid out on her bed, and was being patted lightly on the back by a gaunt man with dark long and shaggy hair.

The said man turned towards him and said, "Harry, you're insane."

 **A/n : That's it for today folks, I'll elaborate about the dementors and the boggart in the future chapters, and about Ginny's Egyptian mind healers in the 4th year. and I'm really sorry for the delay caught the flu over the weekend, so once again thanks for your patience and thanks for reading.**


	17. Chapter 17 Mootatis Mootandiss

_**Chapter 17**_

 _ **Mootatiss Mootandiss (Mutatis Mutandis)**_

 _00:22 am 1st September, Room of Requirements, Girl's Chamber._

Sirius Orion Black, the once Heir to the infamous house of Black, and later the brother to James Potter in all but blood stared at his godson, Harry James Potter, son of the two best people he knew and cared about, who was also the only person he cared about more than them, all those years in azkaban he wanted to hear the boy's laughter just once more, during the war it acted as a medicine for his battered spirit far better than any potion Poppy could give him, he thought that the boy would be growing healthy and happy with Andromeda, good ol' Andy was his favorite cousin for obvious reasons, so when he escaped he had a single plan, catch the traitorous rat and kill him.

So he went to one place where the rat was bound to return seeing as he was pretending to be the weasley boy's pet, Hogwarts, once it was their home, now ever since the time he had taken part in the war, it was a lot of nostalgia and embodiment of the good days, though in some dark days their sanctuary too haunted him, appearing in his dreams in a dilapidated state with the bodies of his loved ones scattered around, the deeper he went the more closer the people were to him, in the black lake he would see Hagrid floating, his body mangled beyond recognition, turning from that when he ran into the nearest corridors he could find he would see his friends, Mary Mcdougal, Amos Diggory, Arthur Weasley and others nailed to the walls, when he ran from them, he would encounter in the great hall, the Heads of all the teachers that taught him, including Dumbledore, on a pike.

Turning from that scene he ran to the closest sanctuary he could imagine, the kitchens, he entered the room and sealed the door shut to keep the horrors of his dreamland out, here at first he didn't see anything then as he went near the fireplace to light the room up a bloody hand slithered out of it and grabbed his, slowly a figure emerged from the darkness in the confines of the room, Dromeda, his dear cousin, his beautiful dear cousin whose face was in his direction and body in the other, her neck twisted in ways he couldn't comprehend, proceeded to start laughing maniacally, not unlike Belltrix, and she came close to him in a way that wasn't human, it wasn't simply the fact that her legs were positioned reverse but also the horror that her knees bent on the inside rather than out to move forward, and he started noticing things, details he couldn't believe he was noting given the amount of terror coursing through him and then she grabbed his face and said "SIRIIII WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE US!" as he tried to run from here he could feel himself being pushed onto Andromeda and when out of his periphery vision he tried to see who it was he saw Ted and Dora, little Dora, sweet Dora, both of whom were now like Andromeda, snapping out of the trance he had slipped into he whipped out his wand and blasted his way out of the kitchens and consecutively tried to blast his way out of the nightmare.

Then he ran towards the one place that had been his little piece of heaven for seven years, but on his way there he happened to peek out of one of the corridor windows which gave him a clear sight of the weeping willow, but more importantly gave him the sight of the werewolf hung by it, using what he noted was silver wire, at last he ventured into the gryffindor dorms the last stop between him and his destination, and then he felt if he died in this horror it would be a mercy as he spotted the bloodied corpse of his fiance Marlene, just like the day he had found her all those months ago before Harry was born, all cut up with blood and semen oozing out of her to form a pool beneath her, he went forward and hugged her body like he had yet again all those months ago and as he was about to let go of her head which had been limp till now snapped in his direction and an unearthly voice emanated from it, "you did this! If it weren't for you she would have been safe, her family was neutral!..." and then shouted unintelligibly, he covered his ears and ran towards the dorms they used for their first year, where it had all begun, where he became a brother, but there too he could find no peace as the man he considered as his brother and his beloved lay dead, again not unlike how he would find them in future not that he knew, but an unimaginable terror tore through him as looked at the crib nearby them and saw the light of their life, the best thing to happen to them in all these years, his godson staring at him his features ashen and his eyes, his emerald orbs that expressed everything were nothing more than obsidian spheres of despair, and his mouth was a gaping maw of an entrance to the abyss as its darkness swallowed everything, and then he would suddenly find himself waking up in his own bed, screaming himself hoarse.

Snapping out of the trance he had slipped into while flashing back to his nightmare, he once again stared at his godson while the young man was busy tending to the young girl who was under his care, he would wave around his wand producing different lights from it and the girl would get excited at seeing them, he had seen them interact a lot, in a fashion similar to how James used to interact with Harry.

Of course there were quite some obvious differences and then even more obscure differences for instance like how Harry ran diagnostic spells at her every time he came to meet her, while he read her books like james - or at least charmed them so that they would vocalize every word in them - the books he felt were more for himself rather than her, they were an easy distraction for the child hence an easy escape where he didn't have to wonder about what she wanted this time, when she wasn't hungry, sleepy, or generally grumpy as all children are, then there was how she interacted with him, how even though he never spoke - something that he didn't know how it came to be as a toddler Harry was a talkative Harry always babbling something or the other which usually made sense only to him - she knew what he wanted of her, and how whenever he came into the room he didn't need to announce his presence to let her know and she could always feel him.

He had met the pair about 10 days ago when Harry had taken her out for a walk around The Shrieking Shack - it isn't a good idea for a child to stay cooped up in a room all the time, and she needed vitamins provided by the natural sunlight and atmosphere for her all round development was the explanation given to him upon his enquiry - at first he hadn't noticed Harry and approached the girl in his Padfoot form, the girl like most children had also taken to his dog form almost instantly getting all touchy with him and trying to get as cuddly as possible, the moment he laid his eyes on his godson he went still as a corpse, he couldn't believe his own eyes, he looked very much like James though quite short for his age a- 13, if his brain hadn't gotten worse from what he'd thought given the black insanity and the all round buggery of it by the dementors - along with ridiculously long hair, and his eyes, emerald green like a killing curse, just like his mothers, he was so shocked by his appearance that he turned back into being his Human form.

When he realized this the first thing he noted was that the boy in front of him hadn't reacted at all, hadn't even blinked - and a small part of his brain, the brain that was one of a celebrated auror from the war noted, now that he thought about it in the short while he had laid his eyes on the boy he hadn't blinked even once, filing that odd bit of information for later, he spoke to his godson, his voice croaky from disuse, "Hello Harry, How are you I'm Sirius, Sirius Black, I mean you must've seen me all over the posters recently, what I meant to say is that, I want to talk to you for a bit if possible i mean, I get it if you wouldn't want to, i mean i killed your parents, or might've as well, it was all my idea after all, and then that art! He'd .. I never thought that he'd have betrayed us, never thought that our friendship meant so little to him, that it was all a lie for him, and that my mistakes would get James killed...:"

Soon as he was done ranting he took note of a few things, the girl who had been cuddling his feet till now was suddenly in Harry's left hand propped against his chest, both of them were looking at him, the girl was looking at him with her ocean blue eyes in what he assumed what curiosity, while Harry stared at him blankly his head cocked towards the right, for a second he dared hope that he would be heard, then Harry let down the girl from his hand and the space around him warped for a few seconds and the dress he had been wearing got replaced by what looked like a blood red colored leather cloak - and again a part of him noted it also smelled like it - full of frills, something Dumbledore would've loved to wear, every last inch was frilled, then Harry once again picked up the girl and approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder, the next thing he knew they were in a big room, quite comfortable looking and from what he could see was most probably the girl's bedroom.

Belatedly he realized he never felt the usual sensations of Apparation or Portkey, which meant it was neither, and then he saw his godson set the girl on the bed, and waving his wand in the general direction of a book shelf that was nearby, quite predictably a book flew out of it and landed near the girl, then as the girl was now distracted by the book he got up and went to the table where a basket was placed, out of it he removed a bowl filled with fruits and placed it by her, and then waved his wand a few more times, at the end Harry approached him with a parchment and quill in his had and wrote to him, "can you start from the beginning? While I managed to understand what you spoke there are many pieces of the story i am not aware of so will you elaborate? If we need to deal with the situation it would be better to know the whole story."

He looked at his godson in a way he didn't believe he could put in words, he had just received one of the few things he had desperately hoped for all these years in azkaban, a chance to explain himself, and it was as if he had been paid for all of his life's misery worth its weight in precious gems, that his judge and jury were not the crooks of wizengamot but the one person whose verdict mattered to him more than anything else. So he began his story, of course he only gave the highlights, bullet points necessary to explain how they had come to the current situation, and when he was done explaining he was panting heavily as he had gotten quite riled up but also satisfied as he believed that he had made his point clear, at least at first, then when he noticed Harry's non reaction reaction to his story, he was about to voice his doubt about his clarity in the story but before he could his godson disappeared from where he stood, and all he could do was stare at the place he had disappeared from.

2 hours, it had been 2 hours since Harry had vanished, for the first fifteen minutes he had been feeling quite lost and utterly despairing, then he felt a tug at his pants and saw that the girl had been the one behind it, he crouched down to her level and saw she held a book up to him, perhaps she wanted him to read it to her or wanted him to read it with her, whatever she wanted he would humor her - all the people who knew Sirius Black closely knew that Sirius might be many things a Jester, an Idiot, showoff, horrible flirt, prankster, not to mention deadly at a moment's notice, was also incredibly soft to children, they were his Achilles heels, the few times he had landed in trouble while fighting with death eaters, any death eater except Voldemort himself, had been not because he was weaker than his opponent but because he had been busy shielding or rescuing a child, he didn't care whose child it was he wouldn't let them get hurt. Period. And so when the baby girl that had been following around his godson the way Harry used to follow James asked him for something, he was putty in her hands in less than a full second.

And finally 3 hours after he had disappeared Harry came back.

Harry once again took him away from the girl whose name he still hadn't heard, this time while laying the girl for a nap and rubbing her back in a clockwise motion, within minutes she was out like a light.

And then Harry made him sit on a sofa and then began writing on a parchment which he followed, and then he read about how Harry had gone to the Weasley home to check for any clues about their current whereabouts, but apparently they had already returned - Arthur had been called back early in the wake of his escape - as such Harry asked the one Weasley he knew - some Ginny Weasley girl - about the rat, he found out that within hours of returning from Egypt the rat had gone missing and now had been missing for a whole three days as of today.

Predictably he didn't take the news well and shouted at the top of his lungs, "That fucking Rat! I'll kill him! I'll choke him to death using his own intestines and then when I'm done I'll

Bring him back and kill him and keep doing that ..."

He stopped mid rant as he noticed the wand pointed towards him, it's tip shining with a jet black colored aura, one he was not a little afraid of.

Then he took in the sight before his eyes, the girl was in hysterics, and Harry had her in his right hand propped against his chest like earlier, and the wand that was pointing towards him belonged to his godson, who he didn't doubt would not hesitate to go to extreme measures for this girl, upto and including hurting his godfather, especially one he didn't know or care about.

So against all of his instincts urging him to do otherwise, he started to relax, started to go through the occlumency exercises he knew, even in the state his shields were they helped him relax, though he also did need some good motivation and right now he had 3 very good ones, in order, The girl crying because of his Hysterics, his quite possibly upset godson - whose face was quite impossible to read - and the wand pointed towards him by the said godson covered in quite a lot of deadly dark magic, and being a Black he knew a thing or two about it.

Then when the wand pointed towards him had been lowered, he took a proper look at his godson and it sent chills down his spine, because whatever he had been about to do was incredibly dangerous, that kind of dark magic was not something he could imagine anyone short of Voldemort - and maybe his cousin Bellatrix - performing, that too with such command at it.

So he took the only option he had available right now, and began brooding for as long as he could.

Soon it had been ten days since he met them, and he made quite a few observations, for one he noted the dynamics of the girls relations with his godson - and thus far he hadn't learned the girls name, perhaps because names held power and Harry didn't want to hand that kind of power on the girl in his hands, he didn't like it but respected it - for another that his godson was an extreme odd, at times he only looked like a thirteen year old that he was, albeit one more mature than most given he was taking care of a child as if he were her parent - and a small part of his brain mused that he actually was given how he acted around her and no label was necessary Biological, Legal or otherwise - but at other times he looked very much like his mother, lost in his thoughts, but there was quite a huge difference, Lily was used to sharing her thoughts with others, Harry on the other hand did not, - or at least he was not one of his confidants - and then there were times when he feared his godson in ways Voldemort and his merry band of Death Munchers never could.

It had taken him three days to piece together why he sometimes felt so uncomfortable around his godson ever since that display of dark magic, his godson was a dark wizard, and one who apparently killed people, it took him another two days to work up the courage to confront him about it - he wasn't afraid of death, but of what he'd hear, about the part his absence played in turning his godson into a dark wizard- and then after he asked his question he didn't got a reply from his for the first two days, on the third he was approached by his godson who then gave him a brief summary about how he had approached the group of international hitwizards to further his skills, and how he had a legal permit to use those kinds of magics at his discretion so long as he never hurt anyone innocent, even then exceptions were made in special circumstances, it allayed some of his concerns, at the same time causing him not a little guilt about what had happened to his precious little boy.

Thus far he hadn't been told about any of his home life, and from what it seemed the boy practically lived here whenever he wasn't out to do whatever it was he did, and he really didn't want to push, to only discover that he had accidentally shoved him and that drove his godson away from him, not to mention possibly get him injured if not killed.

So now here he was again, the day when Hogwarts began it's academic year, watching his godson as he proclaimed "Harry you're insane." while the girl loudly read in the background, a new muggle superhero comic book Harry had gotten for her, "Mootatiss Mootandiss".

 **A/n :** yes now that they've met the story can actually head towards a more meaningful direction, the third year will be quite Sirius centric, the title is because all the changes necessary to develop harry's character have been made, some on screen, some off screen and will be presented in later chapters.

I am sorry if this chapter has any of you confused, because even I feel the presentation wasn't what it looked like in my head, part of why it took so long to post, so I'd also like to announce that I am looking for a beta reader and any help would be appreciated.


	18. Chapter 18 Fucking Halloween

_**Chapter 18**_

 _ **FUCKING HALLOWEEN!**_

 _07:05 am 31st October, Room of Requirements, Girl's Chamber._

He couldn't help but smile as he looked at the girl, sleeping on her bed while clutching on a toy wand Harry had gotten her, his past two months with these two were a roller coaster, both of them would drive him up the wall not a little, but he cared about them enough that he'd give his life for them in less than a heartbeat.

Gone was the gaunt man who had done the impossible and escape the inescapable prison, replaced by a healthy one looking very much like the day he had been sent to prison, and then some, five days after the start of the new year at Hogwarts, which was around two weeks with the duo, Harry started feeding him modified nutrition potions - his own making, ones that not only helped him fix the damage from lack of good food, but also helped his brain recuperate, something about low levels of dopamines and stuff - and he had truly started to feel way better than he had ever in his life, at first for ten days he had to take one with all the three square meals of the day, then for the next ten one in the morning and one in the night, then an alternating schedule between the day and night dosage for every day for another then days and a finishing course where he only took the potions during the night for ten days - and he could feel it in the taste, the potion was somehow altered - but now after all is done he feels better than he had ever before.

He mused this with a smile on his face as he twirled his wand in his hand, another thing his godson had done for him, two days in his medical treatment Harry noticed how he kept looking at his wand and asked him if there was any problem, to which when he explained that he missed having his own wand, and hated thinking about how the ministry had it, probably locked up in the evidence room - something he probably shouldn't have said but is now quite glad that he did - Harry disappeared again, something he had started to get used to around the boy, to return half an hour later with his wand, apparently regularly using his magic could also be good for him both physically and psychologically.

A part of him was really wary about how the boy had gotten his hands on this wand as it couldn't have been possible without taking extreme measures, but every one - especially Lily and Marlene - always called him reckless, so when he questioned his godson he hadn't expected to be told that the said godson simply broke into the evidence room, and he only encountered two guards who didn't even notice him teleporting into the room and then some wards that took him a whole two minutes to dismantle, then he simply summoned the box.

Now his brains might be quite addled and it might have taken a solid hour for the whole tale to sink in him but when it did he was beyond shocked, oh he knew very well that during peacetime the evidence room wouldn't be guarded as well as it used to be, but he had seen the ward scheme used to guard it normally - he was a part of the team that had helped put stronger wards on the damned room during the war - they were no push over, and at least required a good 25 - 30 minutes to dismantle, and his god son had done it in 2, bloody hell.

Soon two weeks into the potions regime he asked Harry for a spar, and then he was taken out of the room to a clearing around some mountains all together the atmosphere was quite pleasant, he lost all the ten spars they had, his godson nor moved from his place nor said out a word aloud - not a single incantation vocalised, perks of being mute a part of him mused - used only basic disarming and stunning spells, and all 10 rounds took only 20 minutes that too because he kept trying to "focus" and get "back into form" he knew he was rusty, hell he was beyond rusty, but still to defeat him before he could even raise his wand was kind of an overkill, and when he told his godson as much his reply was a simple "In a real life situation your enemies would have killed you ten times by now, it would be better if you learn and relearn from your experiences here."

And then there was the matter of his wand, it was reacting fairly well, and wasn't damaged, but it just wasn't the same as before, just like everything else, and when he told Harry about it the boy offered to have a new wand commissioned for it and in the end he couldn't throw away one of the most cherished pieces of his past, one of his constant partners from his past, so he asked if it were possible to keep both of them at the same time, to which - much to his relief - Harry replied in affirmative.

Another thing he had observed was that the weird red dress he wore was for some reason really important to Harry, though it took him some time he finally managed to ask about it, in a roundabout manner because he didn't want to push the boy, wouldn't have wanted it even if he had not been helped out so much by the boy, so when he learned that the dress was useful as an extended foci to increase his control over his magic he was quite intrigued about why he even needed one in the first place, but he reigned in his curiosity and abstained from questioning any further.

Another now 17 days after they had begun duelling, he could hold his own against the boy, till he couldn't and the rug was pulled from beneath his feet as the boy's spells got faster and stronger, quite exponentially so, he had also broadened his arsenal though he was still using basic hogwarts spells but had somehow tweaked them enough to be dangerous if not outright lethal, a basic _Reducto_ was shattering his shield as if it were spun glass, and then what he did with the cutting curses, he still wasn't sure what had happened, when Harry was raining down spells on him he transfigured some wolves to act as distractions and offense at the same time, he didn't expect whatever it was he used to cleave all three of his wolves in a single spell, he definitely didn't the leading wolf to be split apart horizontally from his maw to the tail, the other two tried to get out of the way but the sheer span and speed of the spell made it a moot point.

But the spars gave him a further insight on how his godson's mind worked and helped them mend their relationship, at this point he had no problem asking - pestering - his godson for three days straight about how his spells were so much more powerful than the usual, apparently he compressed them to be smaller than usual which allowed him to make a greater impact at a single place he also made his spells to rotate when shot from his wand as that allowed them to be more accurate and reduced loss of speed, thus making a bigger impact at the end, he had to admit it was quite simple and quite useful in the right hands, of course even more destructive in the wrong hands.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to achieve something like this using his old wand so he informed Harry that he wanted to get the new wand as soon as possible, the next day Harry disappeared again as usual but when unlike usual when his godson returned he was informed that they have an appointment with a wand maker on the 2nd of November.

In the meantime he did try to cast those spells using Harry's methods with his old wand, and after no success for the whole day came to the realization that it was not as simple as he'd thought first, not even close.

All in all, life was going great.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _07:05 am 31st October, Gaunt Shack, Little Hangleton._

Harry carefully strode forward in the desolated little shack, carefully observing his surroundings, the home was at first inspection just a run down hut, definitely unsafe for the Girl was the first thought that went through his mind not that he realized, the second that it would have many deadly protections, it gave of a palpable feel of dark magic, if it were anyone else with his heightened magical senses the air would be as if miasma, it wasn't so much the fact that it was dark magic but the intent behind it was filled with enough malice, he on the other hand strode forward without any discomfort whatsoever.

He had come here after trailing the name Tom Marvolo Riddle - Voldemort's original name before he took up the nom de guerre - he started his search from MoM records of Hogwarts students, which turned up his status of being a half-blood and his address, a wool's orphanage, then turned to muggle archives to a birth certificate along with some school records for Tom with his mother listed as Merope Gaunt and father Tom Riddle which led to a search in the Riddle and Gaunt families, a few state records and news clipping articles detailing their deaths were all he found on the Riddles, quite possibly from the killing curse given the scene described in the articles, and when he crossed it with wizarding world records he found about Morfin Gaunt murdering them, from that he came upon here where the Gaunts lived, and so he started searching for one of Tom's Horcruxes.

There were standard dark magic protections that would harm any intruder, decapitation, blood boiling, flesh rotting, and the like, then there were some parseltongue and blood magic based wards in an alternating order, and a parseltongue based blood magic ward at the end, every last bit of it was arcane magic, and the thing with arcane magic was that it required more precision and less brute force, it depended more upon knowledge and control of one's magic and less about how much magic the caster had, of course that doesn't mean having a greater reserve of magic didn't have it's uses, it made ignoring some basic requirements of the spells possible by simply overpowering them, the same went for reversing them, of course it got quite a little difficult because now you were fighting against, a functional system, like trying to open a gear operated heavily fortified gate by making the gears turn the other way round.

Then with all the knowledge of arcane and his inordinate reserves, he simply blew up the said gate like it were made up of wet tissue paper. It took him all of 10 minutes to get through them, though he expended around 40% of his reserves it was faster and easier than dealing with each ward individually, taking stock of his now un-warded surroundings he strode to where he could feel the Horcrux was placed.

There was a small floor board which was a little crooked, under which the horcrux was placed, when he approached the place he could feel the rotting curses underneath the floorboard, quite subtle yet even more dangerous, few could feel it and even fewer still could deal with it, he flicked his wand once and a minute gout of Fiendfyre poured out of it, controlled enough to destroy only the cursed wood along with itself, he saw the ring, he reached out his magical senses and it took him no effort to confirm the artifact to be what he assumed it would be, and then he froze, slowly his head was cocked towards his right and stared at the ring, to be more accurate the stone in it.

It was like a crystal made out of shadow, some might say out of a shade even, it was obtuse enough to be seen, yet also transparent enough to see through making one wonder if it were a trick of eyes, almost like a spirit, and in it's center sat the symbol of the Deathly Hallows.

Harry poked at it with it magic and for a second all of his senses were drowned in nothing, and then when he came back to the surface he found himself sprawled on the floor, standing up he conjured a small balck box, almost like a traditional ring box, and then after placing the ring in it he disappeared.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _09:05 am 31st October, Staff Room, Hogwarts._

Remus let out a tired sigh, he was sitting all by himself hence he let his mind wander, he was still feeling quite tired from the full moon though what exhausted him more was his thoughts that plagued him, thoughts about his old friend, one he considered a brother, he still couldn't believe that Sirius of all the people betrayed them, he always wondered what drove the dog animagus to do that was it, was it simply his blood, the accursed Black blood of insanity? The one which only Andromeda and Dorea seemed to have escaped, or was it something they didn't know, a secret leverage to use against him, perhaps a secret child he never told anyone about? When he was more drunk on mead he'd pray for it to be the latter and when he was dosed up on melancholy he would torture himself with the first, cackling all by himself like the whole insane family - and even the two lucky ladies did inherit this particular trait - trying to get lost in the insanity.

Then his thoughts turned towards the boy who was his nephew, at least as far as he was concerned, he gave his last thought a thought of it's own and then once again started to laugh maniacally which soon turned into sobs, the boy didn't think anything of him, nor good nor bad, he didn't care, most probably because he didn't have a reason to, so much for being a nephew, he had dropped to ball in epic proportions, even after he mentioned that he had been friends with James and Lily during their school days had not made the boy approach him, and their last conversation two days ago when he had made Harry visit him after class hours was the final straw.

"So - Harry may I call you Harry? - " began Remus, at which he received a nod, "so Harry I heard from Headmaster about you family situation, I'm sorry to hear about your Uncle and Aunt, I also heard about your current living arrangement, how is it working out for you? Are they treating you nicely? Are you having any difficulties? If you need any kind of help, and i mean Any kind, always feel free to approach me."

Harry gave him a nod and then turned to leave, as he got near the door he stopped mid step as if someone had hit the pause button, and then turned one again and approached Remus, taking out his notepad and pen he began writing? "Thank you for being concerned about me even though you have no obligation to do so."

Remus blinked at the blunt manner of being addressed, but given the amount of social interaction he had seen the boy engage in it made an odd amount of sense, so he replied as he saw fit - though a part of him came to regret opening this can of worms - "Harry it's not about obligations, and even if it were, you are my nephew in all but blood - or at least that is how your father was fond of stating our relation - it is my duty to look out for you."

The boy's head cocked towards the right side, as Minerva had informed him he did that whenever he was contemplating something, soon the boy started writing once again, "But didn't that responsibility end with my father's life? The only reason you had to be responsible for my well being because you were friends with him and he was our only mutual connection, with him dead you weren't answerable to anyone in relation to your interaction with me, as such you had no responsibility, unless you had made a legalese pact wherein you were to my guardian after their death, and to the best of my knowledge that was impossible, and still is given the complications, especially the ones arise in the event of my parents death."

He couldn't help but look at the boy, a part of him was confused with this out of the blue and weird response and another was dismayed beyond reason that the boy didn't even think that he could help him, though there was a part of the really he had received that intrigued him yet frightened him at the same time, hoping he was wrong he forged ahead like the gryffindor he is and so he questioned, "What do you mean by that? Why couldn't your parents make me your guardian?"

The boy replied to his question instantly, "The laws of the Wizengamot would not allow someone with your affliction to be a legal guardian of any child, as such even if a pact had been drawn up it wouldn't be legal, as such you had no reason but some kind of moral obligation to my parents to care for me, just like Professor Dumbledore who sent me to the Dursleys as an act of responsibility towards me out of moral obligation, but given you never approached me before today, so the moral obligation is not strong enough that you would pursue it until it is convenient to you."

While a part of him was really shocked about realizing that Harry knew about his lycanthropy, what boke him was a single thought running in his mind that kept saying "You ran away, Coward!"

By the time he had snapped out of his thoughts the boy had gone away, probably taking his daze as a dismissal.

So now here he sat all by himself wondering about how he could at the very least, being making the amends he should have made years ago, they boy knew about what he was and as suc… suddenly a memory hit him like a bludger Hard, Fast, and unexpectedly, it was when Harry was a newborn and he had come to visit the infant for the second time, during his first visit he had been so excited that he forgot every last one of his worries, his curse, the war and everything bad with the world, the little bundle of joy that was Harry managed to light up his dark and cold world, but during his second visit he had been very nervous about accidentally hurting the boy, especially accidentally inflicting the boy with his curse, upon realizing this Lily had given him a thorough chewing out about how unreasonable he was being, and one of the things that she said were "Remus your biggest flaw is that no one seems to hate you as much as yourself, and one day that will cause you to make a big mistake, thankfully you're sensible enough to recognize that, and when you do I'm sure you will find a way to fix it." taking those words as a pledge he thought, _'No matter how long it takes I'll fix this mess I've made'._

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _07:07 pm 31st October, Stonehenge, Wiltshire._

Harry stood in the exact center of the famous monument, when seven lay lines intersected, it was powerful beyond empirical measurement, and it could be used to overcome many limits imposed by the nature of human magic, of course no one in recorded history had been able to harness this power successfully, and the only person to try that, Otto Octavius had spontaneously combusted, there was no foci that could help anyone to regulate the power safely, hence only resulted in failure, but now, now in his hands lay the fabled resurrection stone, something powerful enough to summon shades of the deceased from beyond the after life, and something like that would make his work faster, now he didn't need to keep increasing his strength to follow his original plan and soon by his new calculations his parents would be back by the end of the month rather than three more years it would have taken him otherwise, of course part of that was only possible because today was Halloween, the day the curtain between Life and Death is at its weakest, and he was 13 years old, thus the perfect conductor for the powers of realm of Death.

Then he took out the legendary stone from his pocket along side a white crystal, what he was going to do was quite simple he would pour his power in the stone and summon his parent's souls here and cut their connection to the afterlife using his own as a fuel, it would most likely destroy 60% of his soul, as opposed to the ninety that he would have lost in the ressurection ritual, then he could store those souls in this crystal and over the month create proper bodies for their souls to reside in, homunculi constructs that wouldn't reject their souls, made out of their original bodies, that would take little time.

And then he poured his entire magic in the little stone, and immediately it started a thunderstorm, small quakes began with the henge as its epicenter, but he didn't pay any attention to it, and then the whole world seemingly froze, to be swallowed by an inky darkness and a light descended from its centre, soon an astral apparition of a man formed under the light, and it took Harry no time to recognize that astral figure to be his Father, James Potter, his form was broken and only his face and right hand were visible, Harry expected Lily Potter to be following soon, and his eyes shot towards the light but nothing happened, but then someone called out to him, "Son..".

Harry looked at his father and cocked his head towards the right, then his father spoke again, "It's alright Harry, you'll be alright, but you must let me go, your mother cannot come here and you know why, I know it's not easy, you life hasn't been easy….." his form flickered and Harry focused on the stone, forcing every last bit of his magic in it to make it work.

And his Father returned again, "Harry trust me, you'll learn what I mean today by letting me go, I want you to be free, to be happy, and that cannot happen until you realize that life is more that what it could've been, and more about what it could be, look around yourself, and see the truth for yourself, for the truth shall set you free!."

And then with one shock wave of pure magic their connection broke, his Father's spirit disappeared along with the darkness as if they were never there, and he returned to the monument to find himself lying on the ground, getting up he disappeared once again, just in time before the first person to investigate the site appeared.

 **=0=0=0=0=0=**

 _07:08 pm 31st October, Room of Requirements, Girl's Chamber._

Sirius saw as his Godson popped back into existence in the room which was quite, a regular happenstance, and he let out a relieved sigh as the earthquakes had him worries for Harry's well being, though a reaonable part of him knew that the boy could handle himself, but the paternal part wasn't really willing to give a fuck about reason.

And though when he first saw the boy he was more than overjoyed, another look at him made his stomach drop into an endless pit, there was something different about him, something broken, no that was wrong, he knew his godson was broken already and was little more than pieces glued together, but whatever happened ground those broken pieces into specks of dust.

When their eyes met, there was nothing in them, it was different than his usual indifference, darker, malicious, and destructive.

Their moment was interrupted by the girl as she called out to him "Daddy!" which was something of a new development to his credit.

And as his godson turned to tend to the girl all he could think about was how two different times on Halloween had turned their good lives into disaster, which he vocalized with two simple words, "Fucking Halloween".

 **A/n : That's it for today and Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **See you later!.**


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